yet in delivering his prophecies, he spoke plainly and sensibly; how truly will be seen in the following pages.
As to the credit of this prophecy I dare say it is as well attested as any of Nostradamus’s or Merlin’s, and will come to pass as well as the best of Squire Bickerstaff’s; it is plain enough that great men in all ages had recourse to prophecy as well as the vulgar. I would not have all grave persons despise the inspiration of Nixon. The late French King gave audience to an inspired farrier, and rewarded him with an hundred pistoles for his prophetical intelligence; though by what I can learn he did not come near our Nixon for gifts.
The simplicity, the circumstances, and the history of the Cheshire Prophecy are so remarkable that I hope the public will be as much delighted as I was myself.
By the way, this is not a prophecy of to-day; ’tis as old as the powder-plot, and the story will make it appear that there is as little imposture in it as the Jacobites pretend there is in the person it seems to have an eye to; but whether they are both impostures alike or not I leave the reader to determine.
J. Oldmixon.
THE PROPHECY.
In the reign of King James the First there lived a man generally reputed a fool, whose name was Nixon. One day, when he returned home from ploughing, he laid the things down which he had in his hands, and continued for some time in a seemingly deep and thoughtful meditation, at length he pronounced in a loud hoarse voice, ‘Now I will prophecy;’ and spoke as follows;
“When a raven shall build in a stone lion’s mouth on the top of a church in Cheshire, then a King of England shall be driven out of his kingdom, and never return more.
“When an eagle shall sit on the top of the house, then an heir shall be born to the Cholmondeley family, and this heir shall live to see England invaded by foreigners, who shall proceed as far as a town in Cheshire; but a miller, named Peter, shall be born with two heels on one foot, and at that time living in a mill of Mr. Cholmondeley’s he shall be instrumental in delivering the nation.
“The person who then governs the nation will be in great trouble, and skulk about:—The invading King shall be killed, laid across a horse’s back like a calf, and led in triumph. The miller having been instrumental in it, shall bring forth the person that then governs the kingdom, and be knighted for what he has done; and after that England shall see happy days. A new set of young men, of virtuous manners, shall come, who shall prosper, and make a flourishing church for two hundred years.
“As a token of the truth of all this a wall of Mr. Cholmondeley’s shall fall, if it falls downwards, the church shall be oppressed, and rise no more; but if it fall upwards, next the rising hill on the side of it, then shall it flourish again. Under this wall shall be found the bones of a British King.
“A pond shall run with blood three days, and the Cross stone Pillar in the forest sink so low into the ground, that a crow from the top of it shall drink of the best blood in England.
“A boy shall be born with three thumbs, and shall hold three kings’ horses, while England shall be three times won and lost in one day.”
The original may be seen in several families in the county, and in particular in the hands of Mr. Egerton, of Oulton, with many other remarkable things; as that Peckforton wind-mill should be removed to Ludington hill and that horses saddled should run about while their girths rotted away. But this is sufficient to prove Nixon as great a prophet as Partridge; and we shall give other proofs of it before we have done with him.
I know your prophets are generally for Raw-head and bloody-bones and therefore do not mind it much; or I might add that of Oulton mill shall be driven with blood instead of water, but these soothsayers are great butchers and every hall is with them a slaughter-house.
Now as for authorities to prove this prophecy to be genuine and how it has hitherto been accomplished, I might refer myself to the whole country of Chester, where it is in every one’s mouth and has been so these forty years. As much as I have of the manuscript was sent me by a person of sense and veracity and as little partial to visions as any body. For my own part I build nothing on this or any other prophecy; only there is something so very odd in the story and so pat in the wording of it that I cannot help giving it as I found it.
The family of the Cholmondeleys is very ancient in this county and takes its name from a place so called near Nantwich; there are also Cholmton and Cholmondeston; but the seat of that branch of the family which kept our prophet Nixon is at Vale-Royal, on the river Weave in Delamere forest. It was formerly an abbey, [43] founded by Edward I. and came to the Cholmondeleys from the famous family of the Holcrofts. When Nixon prophesied this family was near being extinct, the heir having married Sir Walter St. John’s daughter, a lady not esteemed very young, who, notwithstanding, being with child, fell in labour and continued so for many days, during which time an eagle sat upon the house-top and flew away when she was delivered of a son.
A raven is also known to have built in a stone lion’s mouth in the steeple of the church of Over, in the forest of Delamere. Not long before the abdication of King James the wall spoken of fell down and fell upwards and in removing the rubbish were found the bones of a man of more than ordinary size. A pond at the same time ran with water that had a reddish tincture and was never known to have done so before or since.
Headless cross in the forest, which in the memory of man was several feet high, is now only half a foot from the ground.
In the parish of Budworth a boy was born about eighteen years ago with three thumbs; the youth is still living there and the miller Peter lives in Noginshire mill in expectation of fulfilling this prophecy on the person of Perkin: he hath also two heels on one foot and I find he intends to make use of them in the interest of King George, for he is a bold Briton and a loyal subject, zealous for the Protestant succession in the illustrious House of Hanover, has a vote for the knights of the shire and never fails to give it on the right side: in a word, Peter will prate or box for the good cause that Nixon had lifted him in and if he does not do the business, this must be said of him, that no man will bid fairer for it; which the Lady Egerton was so apprehensive of, that wishing well to another restoration, she often instigated her husband to turn him out of the mill; but he looked upon it as whimsical and so Peter still continues there, in hopes of being as good a knight as Sir Philip his landlord was.
Of this Peter I have been told, that the Lady Narcliff of Chelsea and the Lady St. John of Battersea, together with several other persons of credit and fashion, have often been heard to talk and that they all asserted their knowledge of the truth of our prophecy and its accomplishment, with many particulars that are more extraordinary than any I have yet mentioned.
The noise of Nixon’s Predictions reaching the ears of King James the First, he would needs see this fool, who cried and made ado that he might not go to court and the reason that he gave was, that he should there be STARVED.—(A very whimsical fancy of his, courts not being places where people are used to starve in, when they once come there, whatever they may have done before.)—The King being informed of Nixon’s refusing to come, said he would take particular care that he should not be starved and ordered him to be brought up. Nixon cried out, that he was sent for again; and soon after the messenger arrived, who brought him up from Cheshire.
How or whether he prophecied to his Majesty, no person can tell; but he is not the first fool that has made a good court prophet.
That Nixon might be well provided for it was ordered that he should be kept in the kitchen, where he grew so troublesome in licking and picking the meat, that the cooks locked him up in a hole; and the King going on a sudden from Hampton Court to London in their hurry they forgot the fool and he was really starved to death.
There are a great many passages of this fool-prophet’s life and sayings transmitted in tradition from father to son in this county palatine; as, that when he lived with a farmer before he was taken into Mr. Cholmondeley’s family, he goaded an ox