NIXON'S CHESHIRE PROPHECY AT LARGE Published from Lady Cowpers correct Copy in the reign of Queen Ann. WITH Historical and Political Remarks; AND Several Instances wherein it has been Fullfilled ALSO HIS LIFE
Reading edition
Nixon unfolds the dark decrees of fate Foretells our Second George shall make him great; That Gallia's Politicks are all a Trance, For Brunswick's Arms shall conquer wily France.
Printed and Sold in Aldermary Church Yard, Bow Lane, London.
Robert Nixon.
Judging from Mother Shipton, and this portrait of Nixon, our native prophets are not remarkable for their good looks. The latter, especially, seems to have owed very little to nature, for he is described as being "a short squab fellow, had a great head and goggle eyes, that he used to drivel as he spoke, which was very seldom, and was extremely surly.
"Against Children he particularly had a spite, especially if they made any sport of him, and would run after them and beat them. At first he was a plough boy to Farmer Crowton of Swanton, and so stubborn, they could make him do nothing without beating. They could seldom get any thing out of him but Yes and No, unless he was pinched with hunger; for he had a very good stomach, and could eat up a shoulder of mutton at one meal, with a good hunch of bread and cheese after it."
The spirit of prophecy seems to have come suddenly upon him, and his recorded vaticinations are purely local.
His end was sad. "The noise of Nixon's predictions coming to the ears of the King [presumably James I.] he would needs see this fool; he cried, and made much ado that he might not go to court, and the reason he gave was that he should be starved. 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 he was sent for again—and soon after the messenger arrived, who brought him up from Cheshire. How or whether he prophesied to his Majesty no body 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 he should be kept in the kitchen; but 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, they forgot Nixon in the hurry, and he was starved to death." The first printed book relating to him is "The Cheshire Prophesy; with Historical and Political Remarks. (By John Oldmixon) London printed and sold by A. Baldwin, in Warwick Lane, price 3d." (1714).