| Malcolm Rigby visited the
scene of Somerset's second coming, just a few miles to the west of
Bridgwater
Anyone visiting the sleepy little village of Spaxton today would be
unlikely to guess that for a century it was home to a strange and
notorious religious sect that challenged the laws of marriage,
established a harem of beautiful and wealthy young women, and was ruled
over by two different 'Messiahs' who both promised immortality. The
Agapemone, literally Abode of Love, was set up in a mansion on the
outskirts of Spaxton in the middle of the 19th century. The main house
has now been divided up and is used for private residential purposes.
The front of the chapel has been boarded up and the remaining stained
glass windows are in need of repair. The Lamb Inn, next door, bears some
witness to their former neighbours in the form of a few newspaper
cuttings and pictures adorning the walls. Just a handful of the
village's residents will remember the final days of the movement which
was by this stage no more than a nursing home for ageing women. The last
leading figure, Sister Ruther, died in 1956. During the early 1950s
Trudel Lederman and her family came to live in one of the Agapemonite
cottages and she became one of the few outsiders permitted to attend
Ruth's funeral. Trudel, who now lives in Bridgwater said: 'I certainly
wouldn't call her ordinary she was somewhat eccentric and obviously
thought that she was born for better things She dressed very peculiarly,
I believe she had some kind of skin cancer on her nose and always wore a
hat with a veil. She was always very friendly, very kind and quite
interested in what we were doing to the cottage'. That the Agapemonite
community survived so long was due to the massive egos of two men and
the gullibility of many other men and especially women. The founder was
a doctor and clergyman of the Church of England called Henry James
Prince. His first curacy was in the nearby village of Charlinch where
his passionate evangelical preaching directed at women soon forced his
resignation. After brief spells in Suffolk and Brighton he returned to
the county to establish his own order of specially chosen spiritual
brides, a task that was made financially possible by persuading a group
of wealthy sisters to marry some of his male colleagues. Although the
aim was to make the community self-supporting through the farm, the
Agapenome was soon a wealthy society as new members to the sect were
expected to donate their worldly goods. So much so that they were able
to afford to build an extravagant temple, the Ark of the Covenant, at
Clapton in London. The centre of the Somerset community was the chapel,
which also acted as bar, lounge and billiards room. It was here that the
'Great Manifestation' took place. Prince, who was already married, had
been promising that a Bride of the Lamb, a young beautiful virgin, would
have to be chosen if the society was to be truly purged of sin. And one
day, in a dramatic pseudo-religious ceremony, he chose a
sixteen-year-old orphan called Sister Zoe. To his embarrassment she
later became pregnant. The Agapemonites lived well - eating drinking and
playing billiards in the company of attractive young ladies, but despite
the actions of their beloved leader, the rest of the community,
including the married couples lived in chastity. In l 899 the impossible
happened, the man who had promised immortality to his followers, himself
died - it is claimed that he was buried standing up to aid resurrection.
The sect was now both confused and leaderless. So Douglas Hamilton, a
member who had taken on the business responsibili-ties of the
Agapemonites, took it upon himself to go out into the world to discover
a new Messiah - he found John Hugh Smyth-Pigott in Dublin. This was a
man who was good-looking, charming and delighted in the company of
women; he was a curate who was determined to use religion to satisfy his
own ambitions and desires. In the cruellest sense, he was the perfect
replacement. Douglas Hamilton told him that the 'sisters' were awaiting
a new 'Heavenly bridegroom', and Smyth-Pigott replied that their
'sour-husband' would be coming. Smyth-Pigott went first to the
Agapemonite church in London, where his proclamations that he was 'God
not man' soon resulted in riots and he escaped to the Abode of Love in
Spaxton. Here he made subtle changes to reinvigorate the order: new
members were brought in, equipment was modernised, the farm prospered
and relations with the local village were improved, largely through the
work of his wife Catherine. But all the time he maintained the myth of
the Bride of the Lamb, reduced the influence and status of the men, and
the upper class of the community (those who did not work) became
accessible to only the most beautiful 30-50 women, from which he would
choose seven 'spiritual brides' each week. To the community's surprise,
in 1904, he chose an outsider to become his 'Bride of the Lamb' or his
'Chief Soul Bride', a position the new Sister Ruth took unhesitatingly
and with no apparent protest from Catherine. The precise nature of the
relationship was soon revealed - three children called Glory, Power and
Life were born within a few years. The response of the Church of England
was to defrock Smyth-Pigott, but his reaction was: 'I am God. It does
not matter what they do'. as the years passed and Ruth aged, the
dictator of the predominantly female community began to look for a new
and younger 'Bride of the Lamb' and a Sister Grace was courted under the
guise of religious instruction. Ruth resolved not to give in without a
fight and challenged Smyth-Pigott in his private quarters. The
consequence of this argument was that the poor woman was publicly
derobed in the chapel and replaced by Sister Grace. Ruth left the
community without her children. After the departure of Ruth,
Smyth-Pigott gave up all pretence of a Chief Soul Bride and the outside
world turned aggressively towards the Agapemonites. Demonstrations
outside the gates were not uncommon and in one of the most brutal
attacks a male member of the sect was mistaken for Smyth-Pigott and was
beaten, tarred and feathered. A little later the man died. The leader
took one more official soul-bride but it was thought that there were
many others. At times of heavy press attention he would take holidays
abroad to other Agapemonite branches, mainly in Norway. These visits
also won converts who would then come to Spaxton as paying guests.
Despite the manner of Ruth's departure, Smyth-Pigott had always
regretted that she had left. So he hired private investigators to track
her down and then implored her to return. When she eventually agreed to
come back it was not as a Chief Soul Bride, but with pity rather than
love, as a dignified woman who bore the marks of intense suffering.
During the mid 1920s the health of the 'Messiah' began to decline, as
did the financial well-being of the sect due to some injudicious
building extensions and the world slump. And in March 1927 the second
'immortal' leader died - many mourners joined Catherine and Ruth at the
graveside of a man who must be one of Somerset's greatest charlatans.
Unchallenged, the leadership switched to Douglas Hamilton who did not
have the youth or the charisma to enable the movement to grow. By l 929
numbers had dwindled to thirty women and three men (Hamilton and a
couple of gardeners). Eventually, the meaningless leadership title fell
to Ruth in her old age. Before she died at the age of 90 she willed that
the chapel should be consecrated and the movement at Spaxton folded
completely two years later.
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