Editing Agapemonites (section)

==John Hugh Smyth-Pigott==
[[File:John Hugh Smyth-Pigott (2).JPG|thumb|right|John Hugh Smyth-Pigott, in 1905]]

===Background===
Smyth-Pigott's birth name was John Hugh Smyth. He was born in Somerset around 1853.<ref>{{cite web |title=1901 England Census. 2 Clapham Common, North Hackney, London. RG13/211. Page 1/5. Schedule 2. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/2618355:7814?tid=&pid=&queryId=a3b4ea87-ad23-40e4-b114-109bf520bb7e&_phsrc=CtQ6&_phstart=successSource |website=ancestry.co.uk|url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=25 May 2024 |quote=John Hugh Smyth-Pigott, age 48, minister (Congregational), born Somersit, Broadley. Wife Catherine Smyth-Pigott, aged 49.}}</ref> He had wealthy parents, and was an [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] graduate, but he began his career as a sailor.<ref name="Wells Journal 25 March 1927" />  After ordination as an [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] clergyman in 1882,<ref name="Westminster Gazette 22 March 1927" >{{cite news |title=Man who posed as Messiah. J.H. Smyth-Pigott dies at Abode of Love. |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002947/19270322/012/0002 |access-date=25 May 2024 |work=Westminster Gazette |agency=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=22 March 1927 |page=2 col.2}}</ref> he became a [[curate]] and [[The Salvation Army|Salvation Army]] officer. He died of [[influenza]], and his funeral took place in the Agapemone grounds on 24 March 1927.<ref name="Wells Journal 25 March 1927" >{{cite news |title=Death of Smyth-Pigott |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000308/19270325/167/0008 |access-date=25 May 2024 |work=Wells Journal |agency=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=25 March 1927 |page=8 col.5}}</ref>

===Smyth-Pigott at Agapemone===
After Prince died in 1899 he was replaced by the Reverend John Hugh Smyth-Pigott. Around 1890, Smyth-Pigott again started leading meetings of the community and recruited 50 young female followers to supplement the ageing population of Agapemonites. He took Ruth Anne Preece as his second wife and she had three children, named Glory, Power and Life.{{sfn|Evans|2006|p=29}} By 1902 his fame had spread as far as India, from where [[Mirza Ghulam Ahmad#Encounter with the Agapemonites|Mirza Ghulam Ahmad]] warned him of his false teachings and made a death prophecy against him in a letter written in November 1902, stating that should Smyth-Pigott refuse to repent from his claims to divinity, then he would die within the lifetime of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Also adding that should Smyth-Pigott not die within his lifetime, then this would falsify Mirza Ghulam's claim to messiahship.<ref>{{cite web | title=A warning to a pretender to divinity | url=https://imgur.com/a/zARIp#KHgEyMQ}}</ref> Along with the cited letter, Mirza Ghulam also separately announced the prophecy he received about Smyth-Pigott in 1902. This was recorded in the 'Tadhkirah'-a collection of his dreams, visions and revelations.<ref>{{cite book | last=Ahmad | first=Mirza Masroor | title=TADHKIRAH | date=2018 | publisher=Islam International Publications ltd | url=https://www.alislam.org/library/books/Tadhkirah.pdf#page=597}}</ref> Despite this prophecy, Smyth-Pigott continued to claim to be God, both during the life of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and after his death. Cited are two August 1905 newspaper clippings from the ''Auckland Star'' and ''The Cambrian'' detailing separate eyewitness reports of both Smyth-Pigott claiming to be God and his followers still openly preaching his divinity.<ref>{{cite web | title="The Abode of Love" | url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19050826.2.88}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=The Cambrian, Friday, August 18 1905 | url=https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3347828/3347836}}</ref> Similarly, following Mirza Ghulam's death in 1908, Smyth-Pigott once again claimed to be God in 1909 during his inhibition by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, as recorded in the ''Nottingham Evening Post'' of March 1927.<ref>{{cite web | title="Nottingham Evening Post, March 1927" | url = http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0000321/19270321/027/0007?_=1497108726400}}</ref>

The house which may have belonged to Smyth-Pigott in [[St John's Wood]] was visited by [[John Betjeman]] in his film ''[[Metro-Land (TV film)|Metro-land]]''. It is built in the [[Gothic Revival architecture|neo-gothic]] style. It is currently the home of the television presenter [[Vanessa Feltz]] and was previously the home of [[Charles Saatchi]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Vanessa Feltz's House History|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2007/04/25/vanessa_home_history_feature.shtml|work=Where do you think you live|publisher=BBC|access-date=17 June 2012}}</ref>

Following Smyth-Pigott's death in 1927, the sect gradually declined until the last member, Ruth, died in 1956.{{sfn|Evans|2006|p=31}} Her funeral in 1956 was the only time when outsiders were admitted to the chapel.<ref>{{cite book|last=Byford|first=Enid|title=Somerset Curiosities|date=1987|publisher=Dovecote Press|isbn=978-0946159482|page=[https://archive.org/details/somersetcuriosit0000byfo/page/22 22]|url=https://archive.org/details/somersetcuriosit0000byfo/page/22}}</ref>

Smyth-Pigott's grand daughter, Margaret Campbell, recalled that her grandmother (Ruth Preece) had warned her that there were many stories made up about Smyth-Pigott but that he was a 'good man'. Campbell argued that Smyth-Pigott, or Beloved as he was known, did not have affairs although he did have two bigamous wives. She claimed that both wives were happy with the arrangement (one being older and unable to have children) and that the sect had to be viewed as of its time, emerging shortly after religious emancipation in the 1830s. It allowed many rich women an alternative lifestyle to their other options of governess or wife and they lived in luxury at the Agapemone in Somerset until their death. She recalled growing up at the cult as a very happy experience in an interview to the ''Henley Standard'' in 2016, shortly before her death. Campbell argued that Beloved had once given a sermon in which he said, 'Christ is no longer here (pointing skywards) but here (pointing to his chest),' thereby expounding the central Christian doctrine of Christ within every Christian and that this had been twisted by the media for their own aims.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/campaigns/80100/granddaughter-of-man-who-ran-victorian-religious-sect-seeks-share-of-1m-legacy.html | title=Granddaughter of man who ran Victorian religious sect seeks share of £1m legacy}}</ref> Kate Barlow deftly dispels rumours of a 'revolving stage of virgins' as described by one newspaper at the time as myth in her memoir 'The Abode of Love' and details many interesting aspects of the cult such as its own signature tea served at 4pm every day.<ref>Kate Barlow, 'The Abode of Love'</ref>