Isaac Bickerstaff

1667 – 1745

Isaac Bickerstaff Esq was a pseudonym used by Jonathan Swift as part of a hoax to predict the death of then famous Almanac–maker and astrologer John Partridge. “All Fools Day” (now known as April Fools Day which falls on 1 April) was Swift’s favourite of holidays and he often used this day to aim his satirically biting wit at non-believers in an attempt to “make sin and folly bleed.” Disgruntled by Partridge’s sarcastic attack about the “infallible Church” written in his 1708 issue of Merlinus Almanac, Swift projected carefully 3 letters and one Eulogy as an elaborate plan to “predict” Partridge’s “infallible death” to be revealed on April 1, All Fools Day. Source: Wikipedia