Jezreel's Tower

Jezreel’s Tower (also known as Jezreel's Temple) was built in Gillingham, Kent, England, by a religious sect founded by James Jershom Jezreel in the 1880s. It was demolished in 1961.

James Roland White, later known as James Jershom Jezreel, was born about 1851. It is not known where but he declared on a marriage certificate in 1881 that he was a merchant’s cleric, son of a warehouse superintendent and of bachelor status.

On 27 July 1875, White enlisted in the British army and a few days later joined the 16th Regiment of Foot, based in Chatham, Kent. Soon afterwards, he became interested in the teachings of Joanna Southcott (1750–1814).

Southcott’s followers claimed she was a prophet and her sealed writings purported to reveal answers to world problems. Her ultimate prediction was the imminent coming of a second Christ (Shiloh) of whom she — aged 65 — was to be the mother. She died, childless, in 1814, leaving a sealed wooden box of prophecies, known as Joanna Southcott's Box, with the instruction that it be opened only at a time of national crisis, and then only in the presence of all 24 bishops of the Church of England.

The sect, however, continued and was expanded upon by other "prophets", including Richard Brothers, George Turner, William Shaw and John Wroe. Brothers and Turner were committed to asylums but Wroe attracted a strong following in Ashton-under-Lyne (now in Greater Manchester). Groups of supporters appeared in the south, including Chatham.

On 15 October, White joined a small branch of a Southcottian sect of Christian Israelites at Chatham, led by a Mr and Mrs Head and calling itself the New House of Israel. Shortly afterwards he wrote a version of the manuscript to become known as the "Flying Roll" and took over the church. White adopted the name of James Jershom Jezreel and persuaded worshippers that he was the Messenger of the Lord.

White completed his military service in 1881 and set about building a headquarters for his church. The site — at the top of Chatham Hill and the highest point in the area — was chosen, Jezreel said, after a revelation from God.

He envisaged a building based on Revelation xxi, 16: "And the city lieth foursquare, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth ... the length and the breadth and the height thereof are equal."

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