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Doc. 269.1 575
HINDMARSH TO GOMM.
altogether destitute of truth, and that it must have originated
with, and proceeded from, some malicious person, whose enmity
to Swedenborg’s writings had suggested such a falsehood. His
wife, who was present, and who had constantly attended Sweden
borg until the time of his decease, corroborated her husband’s
testimony ; and they both freely offered to make an affidavit
before a Magistrate, that the report, which had been raised
and circulated to the prejudice of Swedenborg, was altogether
false and groundless.
"Satisfied with this information, anxious to give it publicity
in an authentic shape, Mr. Wright and I proceeded to the
house of Mr. Pritchard, a proctor, in Doctor’s Commons, who,
on hearing the particulars, prepared an affidavit in legal form,
the contents of which were sworn and signed by Mr. Shearsmith
and his wife, on the 24th of November, 1785, before the Lord
Mayor of London, whose name also was Thomas Wright, though
no relation of my friend the watchmaker. A copy of this
affidavit, together with a letter enclosing the same, was then
forwarded to Mr. Gomm, at the Hague ; which were as follows :
B.
ROBERT HINDMARSH225 TO WILLIAM GOMM, ESQ.241*
’
Dear Sir,
’
I am in possession of the most authentic
proof of the falsity of the report you mention to have gained
credit in Holland, regarding Baron Swedenborg’s having dis
owned, or retracted, his doctrines and communications when
he was drawing near his end. The persons in whose house
he lived, and where he died, upon being told this circumstance,
freely offered, of their own accord, to take their oaths before
a magistrate, that the whole of the said report is totally void
* This letter was first printed in the English language in the "Magazine
of Knowledge," 1791, Vol. II, pp. 298, 299; from which it was introduced
into the English and American editions of the "Swedenborg Documents."
It had previously been printed in a French translation in a work published
in 1785 by B. Chastanier under the title : "Tableau analytique et raisonné
de la Doctrine Céleste," &c., pp. 243, 244.
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