John Wroe
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John Wroe (September 19, 1782 – February 5, 1863) was a British evangelist who founded the Christian Israelite Church in the 1820s after having what he believed were a series of visions.
[edit] Biography
Wroe was born in the village of East Bowling, near Bradford, West Yorkshire to a worsted manufacturer and farmer, and baptised in the town. After a rather scanty education, he entered his father's business, but later took a farm. He married and brought up a family of three children.
In 1819 Wroe became ill with a fever and two doctors who attended him considered his life was in serious danger. Wroe asked for a minister to come and pray with him. Although his wife sent for four church ministers, each refused his request. His wife then asked him if she should send for the minister of the established church at Bradford.
Wroe asked his wife to read a few chapters of the Bible to him, and after a while, he gradually recovered his bodily health, but his mental distress continued and he "wrestled with God" day and night for some months.
A short time later, Wroe started having visions, and often became blind and unable to speak — on one occasion remaining sightless for six days.
During these periods, Wroe said, many remarkable events were foretold and revealed to him: the Spirit told him to relinquish his worldly employment, so he devoted his life to travelling and preaching, where he gained many followers and persuaded them that he was Shiloh, or the messiah.
Wroe, although often persecuted and threatened, travelled throughout Europe including Gibraltar, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Scotland, and Wales. He later travelled to the United States, and Australia.
He died in Melbourne, Australia, in 1863, aged of 81, leaving the church affairs in the hands of his trustees. The Christian Israelite Church was originally set up in Gravesend, Kent, but its headquarters moved to Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, where the church had a printing press.
