Jane Ward Lead
Jane Ward Lead, born in March 1623 in Norfolk, England, was a significant figure in the realm of Christian mysticism and religious writing. She experienced a profound spiritual awakening at the age of sixteen, which marked the beginning of her contemplative journey, diverging from her family's expectations. After marrying her cousin William Lead in 1644 and experiencing personal loss, including her husband's death, she began to receive nightly visions that profoundly influenced her life and work. Her most notable contribution is the three-volume work titled *A Fountain of Gardens*, which blends her mystical experiences with themes from the Bible, alchemy, and numerology.
Lead's writings resonated with followers of the German mystic Jakob Boehme and contributed to the formation of the Philadelphian Society, which she co-founded with Dr. Francis Lee. Despite facing financial hardships and becoming blind later in life, her mystical insights continued to be documented, showcasing a deep engagement with spiritual themes. She ultimately passed away in 1704 at the age of eighty-one, leaving behind a legacy of visionary literature that remains of interest to scholars and those exploring mystical Christianity.
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Jane Ward Lead
Writer
- Born: March 1, 1623
- Birthplace: Norfolk, England
- Died: August 19, 1704
Biography
Although Jane Ward Lead (also often spelled Leade) primarily wrote nonfiction prose works, she in her books frequently broke out into verse as well. She was born in March of 1623, in Norfolk, England, one of nine children; her family was influential in the area and her father was justice of the peace, but she was inadequately educated at home. At the age of sixteen in 1640, she heard a “whispering voice” during the family’s Christmas celebration, saying, “Cease from this; I have another dance to lead thee in, for this is vanity.” This mystical experience caused her to enter a spiritual depression lasting three years, which ended only when another vision pardoned a lie she had told earlier in her life. She became highly contemplative and religious, apparently against her family’s wishes. In 1644, at the age of twenty-one, she married William Lead (Leade), who was a distant cousin. They had one daughter, Barbara, before William died in February of 1670; Lead never remarried.
A decisive event in Lead’s life occurred in 1663, when she met Dr. John Pordage, rector of Bradfield, who was a follower of the German shoemaker-mystic Jakob Boehme. The two remained friends for several years. Meanwhile, the death of Lead’s husband brought her into financial distress due to failed business investments. More importantly, Lead almost immediately (April, 1670) began having nightly spiritual visions of the Virgin Wisdom, Sophia, which she recorded in her journal, eventually producing the three-volume A Fountain of Gardens (1696-1701). The figure of the Virgin Wisdom told her, “I shall now cease to appear in a Visible Figure unto thee, but I will not fail to transfigure my self in thy mind; and there open the Spring of Wisdom and Understanding.”
In 1674, Lead moved into Pordage’s household as his spiritual “mate.” During most of the year of 1678, Lead related in her journal a series of visions of beings she called the “Magia-School—where all of Mortal Language was to be excluded.” The third volume of A Fountain of Gardens presented the Magia Rules, the first of which was “that henceforth, we unlearn and unknow all.” Beginning with The Heavenly Cloud Now Breaking (1681), Lead wrote at least fifteen religious books and treatises, in which she combined her remarkable and visionary Christian mysticism with images from the Bible, numerology, alchemical symbolism, and magical rituals. She also left sketches of some of these visions, among them an immense “eye” she saw in the morning sky above London.
Lead’s writings were well received by Boehme’s followers in Germany and Holland, and by Dr. Francis Lee of Oxford. Lee met Lead and was adopted by her as his spiritual “son”; through a “divine order,” he married Lead’s daughter Barbara, who was then the widow of Izaac Walton. Lead and Lee together formed the Philadelphian Society in 1694 and began publishing its monthly journal, Theosophical Transactions by the Philadelphian Society. The Society held its meetings in Lambeth throughout 1697.
When Lead became blind around 1699, Lee continued recording her numerous visions. Increasingly impoverished, Lead received a pension from a Baron Knyphausen, but lived in an almshouse in Stepney. She died at the age of eighty-one on August 19, 1704.