{{Short description|British head teacher, writer, expositor and publisher (1857-1947)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2025}} {{Use British English|date=November 2025}} {{Infobox writer | name = Alice Seymour | birth_date = {{Birth date|1857|01|10|df=y}} | birth_place = Plymouth, Devon, UKGBI | death_date = {{Death date and age|1947|10|24|1857|01|10|df=y}} | death_place = Blockley, Gloucestershire, UK | education = | pseudonym = Alec C. More <ref name="ODNB"/> | occupation = {{flatlist| * Head teacher * writer * expositor * publisher }} | title = | parents = }} '''Alice Seymour''' (10 January 1857 – 24 October 1947) was a British head teacher, writer, expositor and publisher of the writings of Joanna Southcott.<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/93403 |title=Seymour, Alice (1857–1947), schoolteacher and expositor and publisher of the writings of Joanna Southcott |first= Jane |last=Shaw |year= 2012}}</ref> In 1928, Seymour founded the Olive Branch League for young Southcottians.<ref name="ODNB"/>
== Early life == Seymour was born in Plymouth.<ref name="ODNB"/> Her parents were members of the Christian Israelite Church who followed the evangelist John Wroe. She read the works of Joanna Southcott as a child.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jK42DwAAQBAJ&q=alice+seymour+&pg=PT205|title=The History of a Modern Millennial Movement: The Southcottians|last1=Shaw|first1=Jane|last2=Lockley|first2=Philip|date=2017-05-30|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=9781786721907|language=en}}</ref>
== Spiritual intervention == In 1907 she said she was visited by spirits who told her that she was to write a life of Joanna Southcott.<ref name="ODNB"/> She did this and it was published in 1909, "The Express".<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Southcott|first1=Joanna|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Sz7zAEACAAJ&q=The+Express+alice+seymour|title=The Express: pts. 1-3|last2=Seymour|first2=Alice|date=1918|publisher=Carpenter's Book Store|language=en}}</ref> She had previously thought that she was to write a Southcott biography book with the Reverend Walter Begley, but he had died in 1905. The 1909 book was well received at the ''Daily News'', which made it their book of the week.<ref name="ODNB"/>
In 1914, she led a campaign to get the secret prophecies of Joanna Southcott opened. The prophecies were intended for a moment of crisis and Southcott had laid down the conditions under which they could be opened including the presence of 24 bishops.<ref name="ODNB" />
Seymour created a group who followed the ideas of Southcott and she was in disagreement with Mabel Barltrop and the Panacea Society. Seymour arranged for the publication of Southcott's works and a magazine, but it was Barltrop who was to lead the larger Southcottian group. Seymour objected to Barltrop but they never fell out as Seymour wanted to be there when Barltop's group organised a reopening of Southcott's box.<ref name="ODNB" /> In Mabel Barltrop's 1930s planning for the potential opening of the box a seat was set aside for Seymour.<ref name=shaw290>{{cite book |last=Shaw |first=Jane |title=Octavia, Daughter of God |publisher=Jonathan Cape |publication-place=London |date=2011 |isbn=978-0-224-07500-8 |page=290}}</ref> One of Seymour's followers, Ellen Oliver, was to join Barltrop's emerging group and to identify Barltrop as a prophet.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|last=Shaw|first=Jane|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/93402|title=Barltrop, Mabel [name in religion Octavia] (1866–1934), prophet and founder of the Panacea Society|date=2012-10-04|series=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/93402}}</ref>
== Death == Seymour died in Blockley in 1947 at Rock Cottage.<ref name="ODNB" />
== References == {{reflist}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seymour, Alice}} Category:1857 births Category:1947 deaths Category:Writers from Plymouth, Devon Category:Schoolteachers from Devon Category:Women prophets Category:Women Christian religious leaders