Brothers

Brothers, Richard, was born in 1757, at Placentia, in Newfoundland. After serving in the British navy, he retired in 1789 on a lieutenant's half-pay, which, however, he forfeited through his inability, on conscientious grounds, to take the oath. Styling himself "the nephew of the Almighty and Prince of the Hebrews appointed to take them to the Land of Canaan," he came forth in 1793 as the apostle of a new religion. In the following year he published A Revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies and Times, and for prophesying the death of the king was sent to Newgate in 1795. From here he was removed to Bedlam, being released in 1806. Believers in Brothers's theory, that the English are the lost tribes of Israel, are not yet extinct, and in his own times his followers included Nathaniel Halker, M.P. and orientalist, and many others. He died in 1824.