Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 180
180 AHMADIYY AT The record at Somerset House shows that onJune 23 1905, a male child was born to Ruth Anne Preece (of independent means) and John Hugh Smyth Piggot (Priest in Holy Orders). The name given to the baby boy was Glory. On 20 August 1908, Sister Ruth, as she was now referred to, gave birth to another boy. The Bridgwater registrar, Sidney W. Hook, was called to the Agapemonie on 18 September, when the same details of parentage were recorded. This child was named Power. After the birth of Power, the Bishop of Bath and Wells took action and ordered that Smyth Piggot be arraigned before a Consistory Court on a charge of immorality. He was found guilty and was defrocked in Wells Cathedral in March 1909. Public attention was then focused on Agapemonie and it was discovered that there were nearly one hundred women there and only a handful of men. Piggot lived on in igno- minious circumstances in Somerset in austere loneliness and died in March 1927. Though the promised Messiah had been warned that his life was drawing to a close and he had published his testament, had established the graveyard and had organized the Central Ahmadiyya Association, he did not sit back and take things easy. In 1905 he had completed the proverbial three score years and ten and his health, which had never been very robust, was suffering from the strains of old age and hard work. But as his entire occupation was the service of God and his fellow beings, he continued to work with more and more diligence as days and weeks and months sped past and he gave the impression as if he was working against time. The rapid growth of his Movement added to his cares and responsibili- ties so that the pressure upon him, instead of being relieved, became heavier with the passage of time. In April 1908 the state both of his own health, and of his wife's health, needed attention and he decided to go to Lahore for medical advice. Before making his final decision