WILLIAM DORRILL Cult Leader

By John W. Dorrill

Cults have always interested me. Even to the point of joining a few just to see if I could resist their brainwashing techniques and to generally reek havoc within their organization. It always amazed me how one person could control so many. or more to the point how so many could allow one person to control them. Little did I know that one my own forefathers had founded one of the most controversial cults in early American history, the Dorrilites

Possibly the strangest religious sect, from the early American era was founded by William Dorril a British Redcoat from Yorkshire, England. The Yankees captured him at Saratoga in 1777, under General Burgoyne. He was released from captivity 1780. That may have been enough to make anyone have a few religious experiences. I would imagine that if one lived through being a prisoner from those times it may have very well brought you closer to God. William was a giant in those times, 6 ½ foot tall, 300 pounds he had a large forehead with quick eyes that penetrated your secret thoughts, they say. In possession of a remarkable memory, William Dorril could hear something once and remember it verbatim. He often quoted long passages from the gospel that were read to him only one time by his wife Polly Chase. It is said that he was quite articulate and eloquent in his speech, and graceful in his demeanor. For some though reason he never learned to read or write.

William was born on March the 15th, 1752. He fought in three campaigns in Ireland and in the American revolution. This too may have spawned some supernatural experiences. Sometime in 1790 William Dorril with his wife and five children settled in Leyden, Massachusettes. It seems that this was about the time that Dorril became aware through a voice from the heavens that he was the “Messiah” of his generation and must sacrifice his life to the lord and consequently founded the “Dorrilites”.

Some reports say there were as many as forty Dorrilites in William’s congregation and other reports say ten times that number. One thing is certain, the Dorrilites definitely made a large impact on that community. The other clergy had nothing good to say about William Dorril. That they were in league with the devil. (Well, I can darn sure understand what that feels like. I owned a tattooshop in the bible belt of Louisiana for 17 years. The Pentecostals made the same claim about the devil and I. I had to defend both of us, the devil never showed up to defend himself in person). My contention is that the reason they hated him, was not so much an issue of mo-rality so much as it was moe money.

A few of the Dorrilite doctrines included that there should be no Sundays, that every day was a holy day. There was no reason to kill a living creature. ( Obviously they never heard rap music.) According to some of the locals the Dorrilites had little regard for spiritual morality. When a married couple became “perfect” through Dorrilism there was no longer any reason for them to be holden of one another in a physical sense. This apparently was the beginning of rumors that the Dorrilites had nights of “promiscuous concubinage”. I would like to add here that village orgies were common forms of entertainment in those days. It seems to me that the Dorrilites must have had great times with their services, more like parties with loud music and singing and dancing. All in all seems okay up to this point.

In Dorril’s mind he had become perfect, raised from a state of sin to a spiritual life, therefore not responsible to civil laws and sovereign from all principalities and powers. In short he believed that he was on the same spiritual plane as Jesus Christ.

The Dorrilites were strict vegetarians obviously they would not kill for food. Consequently they would not use leather in any way either . Shoes were made of wood and harnesses were of braided rope. Cloth was woven from the flax plants. Dorril had total control over his congregation, he allowed no room for democracy. It appears that all property of the congregation was the possession of the church unofficially.

As all good things, the Dorrilites too had to come to and end. The less than honorable demise of William Dorril’s reign as the Messiah of that generation began one night when he was boasting to his following that he was in fact impervious to physical pain. He made the comment “that no man of flesh can harm me”. Well that didn’t settle so good with one Captain Ezekial Foster. Who like William was also large in stature. So anyway Foster gets up and squares off and fires a solid blow to the chin of William Dorril, knocking him to the ground. Dorril stood up and Foster clocked him again and wouldn’t quit until William promised to stop his B/S about being some supernatural prophet. It goes without saying that this incident, added with the look of apparent physical discomfort on his face embarrassed William Dorril.

If your reading this your probably a Dorrill-Darrell-Dorrel. So you have an idea of what’s coming next right? Yep you guessed it, William Dorril decides he is going to get even with El Capitan Foster and he wants to murder him. ( A sudden change in church doctrine here. So much for the no harm to other creature ideal) Dorril and some of the Dorrilites got together and devised a “murder machine” that was suppose to somehow someway kill Foster. There are no records that I can find of exactly what this machine was, however it is describes as “ingenious”. apparently not too ingenious for it didn’t work. But it is said that Foster narrowly escaped because someone in the congregation ratted out their plan to kill him.

Dorril did try to hang on to his church after he lost face in the fight with Foster. But what he was resorting to was obviously fraud and trickery even to the point that we attempted to walk on water and someone had removed the wooden planks that Dorril previously laid down just below the waters surface causing him to fall in when he attempted his trick. More embarrassment for the prophet Dorril. There were reports that some faction of the Dorrilites continued on for a number of years.

During the course of William’s time around Leyden he spent a lot of time in caves where he would go to meditate and pray. Evidently he did have a desire to spend long amounts of time alone. After the bottom fell out of the Dorrilite sect, William decided to live the remaining 45 years of his life in retirement, much of it in solitude up until his death in August of 1846. He was 94. It is worthy of note that William Dorril literally starved himself to death. He said that he had no desire to live any longer and if he kept eating he would live forever.

The Shoes of Willaim Dorrell