But that’s all turned on it’s head eventually and it’s a wonder of did he? Did she? Who’s telling the truth? John Wroe (19 September 1782 – 5 February 1863) was a British evangelist who founded the Christian Israelite Church in the 1820s after having what he believed were a series of visions. 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. Wroe then 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. [ citation needed] It still strikes me as extraordinary that it’s based on a true story: that there was a man called John Wroe who founded the Christian Israelite Church in Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire in the 1820s, where he predicted the world was about to end. Perhaps most strangely of all, he professed that God had told him to take seven virgins from the local congregation for his ‘comfort and succour’. We know little of who these women were, but Jane Rogers has given them poetic life from her imagination and in doing so created a historical document of the world in which they and many other working class women might have experienced the society of their time. Wroe’s life was the basis of a novel, Mr Wroe's Virgins by Jane Rogers. [5] In 1993 Jonathan Pryce featured as Wroe, alongside Kathy Burke and Minnie Driver, in a BBC mini-series adaptation of the novel directed by Danny Boyle. [6]

Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives. Jane Rogers chronicles the nine months these women spend together until accusations of indecency and the trial that follows bring Wroe's household to its dramatic end. There is a cripple, a badly beaten mute, two underage sisters who can barely read, Joanna "the Saint," Hannah the unbeliever, and Leah, who secretly mothered an illegitimate child. And then there is Prophet Wroe, as enigmatic and attractive to each of the virgins as he is an iron hand. With an impeccably crafted narrative and utterly beguiling prose, Rogers delves deep into the conflicts surrounding faith, love, and passion. Ultimately each of the virgins comes away with a powerful lesson in independence. Wroe died in Melbourne, Australia, in 1863, aged 81, leaving the church affairs in the hands of his trustees.

Contribute to This Page

The story is told through four of these virgins. One is a religious zealot who became an annoying read as she was both manipulative and easily manipulated, it is easy to see how unscrupulous people could get this type of person to commit atrocities in the name of God. Yet another had been brutalised as a girl and her story is well written, you become witness to her evolving use of English as she recounts her story. The two others are the main players. Rogers chooses four of the ‘sisters’ (as they are known in the household) to tell the story. As with Darwin’s The Mathematics of Love, the characterisations and voices are so cleverly written that it is easy to tell whose story you are in. No sign posting is required. Martha (the mute) is a particularly interesting character. When we begin to focus on her she is unable to construct sentences. It is wonderful to watch her progression from ���savage’, as she is described by her sisters, into a ‘full’ person. At the start Martha’s focus is directed purely on where she will get her next meal. She doesn’t trust the others or Mr Wroe. She then begins to think and value herself. We watch her transform and by the end she probably acts the most sensibly out of all the sisters.

When God told Prophet John Wroe to comfort himself with seven virgins, his congregation gave him its daughters. So begins this provocative and immensely powerful novel, set in nineteenth-century England and based on actual events.

The Christian Israelite Church was originally set up in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire and from 1822 to 1831 the town was the church's headquarters. In the 1820s the church trustees wanted to turn Ashton-under-Lyne into a "new Jerusalem". They intended to build a wall around the town with four gateways, and although the wall was never constructed, the four gatehouses were, as was a printing press. These plans failed when the Trustees were replaced and the church headquarters moved to Gravesend in Kent in the 1830s. Popular opinion in Ashton turned against Wroe when, in 1831, he was accused of indecent behaviour, but the charges were dismissed. The church spread to Australia, where it is still active. [3] [4] There is nothing documented about the women, so Rogers creates entirely fictitious characters. For her seven, Rogers chooses: a cripple, a badly beaten mute, two under-age sisters who can barely read, a virtuous saint, a girl donated by her aunt and uncle who does not belong to the congregation and doesn’t believe, and a girl with an illegitimate son.