southcott left a sealed wooden box of prophecies, usually known as "joanna southcott's box", with the instruction that it be opened only at a time of national crisis, and then only in the presence of all 24 bishops of the church of england (there were only 24 at the time), who were to spend a fixed period of time beforehand studying southcott's prophecies. attempts were made to persuade the episcopate to open it during the crimean war and again during the first world war. in 1927, the psychic researcher harry price claimed that he had come into possession of the box and arranged to have it opened in the presence of one reluctant prelate, the suffragan bishop of grantham. it was found to contain only a few oddments and unimportant papers, among them a lottery ticket and a horse-pistol. price's claims to have had the true box have been disputed by historians and by followers of southcott.