Buchanites

Buchanites a fanatical sect which arose in Scotland 1783. An ignorant but shrewd woman, named Elspeth Buchan (born 1738), gave out that she was the Spirit of God, the mysterious woman in Revelation 12 in whom the light of God was restored to men. She professed to communicate the Holy Spirit, and pretended that she had brought forth a man-child, "who was to rule with a rod of iron," in the person of the Rev. Hugh White, minister of the Relief Presbytery at Irvine, who, though an educated man, gave himself up to this delusion. A number of persons joined them. Driven from Irvine by a popular tumult, they made a settlement at New Cample, enjoying community of goods, and living in concubinage and adultery. Mrs. Buchan promised her deluded followers "translation" instead of death, but unfortunately died herself March 29, 1791. The community held together for a while, but Mr. White left them in 1792 and went to Virginia, where he became a Universalist preacher. The establishment was removed to Crocketford, where its last survivor, Andrew Innes, died in 1845. — Train, The Buchanites from first to last (Edinb. 1846, 18mo).