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Chronology of Shakers

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The early chronology of Shakers is a list of important events pertaining to the Shakers, a denomination of Christianity. Millenarians who believe that their founder, Ann Lee, experienced the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the Shakers practice celibacy, confession of sin, communalism, ecstatic worship, pacifism, and egalitarianism. This list focuses on the formative and early periods of Shaker history, from 1747 to 1836. These periods span the emergence of denomination's precursors in the mid-18th century, the emigration of the Shakers to British North America on the eve of the American Revolution, and subsequent missionary work and the establishment of nineteen major planned communities.

Chronology

Emergence in England

Precursor movements

Emergence of the Shakers

  • February 29, 1736: Ann Lees (later known as Lee) is born in Manchester, England.
  • 1747: Jane and James Wardley, Quakers living in Manchester, dissent from the quietism - solemn, quietly meditative worship - in that denomination. They desire a more expressive form of worship, likely because of the influence of the Camisards. They form a house church at the the residence of John Townley in Bolton, where the attendees practice ecstatic worship. This and subsequent house churches elsewhere in Manchester, as well as in Meretown and Chester, become known as the "Wardley Society", and soon also become known as "Shaking Quakers" or "Shakers" due to the physical trembling when the congregants are overcome with religious ecstasy.
  • 1758: Ann Lee joins the Wardley Society.
  • January 5, 1761: Lee marries Abraham Standerin.[1]
  • 1766: John Hocknell, after initially being drawn to Methodism, joins the Wardley Society.[2] Around this time, the Partington family also starts hosting church meetings.[3]
  • Circa 1768: John Hocknell brings his daughter, Mary, to live with Ann Lee and her brother William, in the house of their father, John Lees.[3]
  • 1769: A scathing report on the Shakers, likely a reprint from an English newspaper, is published by The Virginia Gazette in the Colony of Virginia.[4]
  • Circa 1770: While in prison for "disturbing the peace", Lee receives a vision and is convicted of the need for universal celibacy among all Christians.
  • 1774-1772: By this time, the Shakers have become disruptive, and Ann Lee and others are jailed more than once.

Formative years in the United States

  • May 19, 1774: Nine Shakers emigrate from England to the Province of New York, financed by John Hocknell. These are: Ann Lee, Abraham Standerin, William Lee (a brother of Ann), Nancy Lee (a niece of Ann), James Whittaker, John Hocknell, Richard Hocknell (a son of John), James Shepherd, and Mary Partington.[5][6][7] The Shakers land in New York on 6 August, 1774.[8] Within a few years after arrival in New York City,Nothing more is known of the Townleys and Wardleys after this point - according to Shaker and anti-Shaker accounts, in the summer of 1774 John Townley and the Wardleys went bankrupt and relocated to a poor house.[8][9]
  • 1775: John Hocknell leases property from the Manor of Rensselaerswyck, in Albany County, New York. Known as Niskayuna and later on as Watervliet (today the site is located in Colonie, New York), this becomes the first major Shaker settlement in the United States, Watervliet Shaker Village. Hocknell briefly returns to England in order to bring his family to Watervliet, including his second wife, Hannah. The family of Mary Partington, including her husband, John, also emigrate to the new community.[6] Abraham Standerin renounces the Shakers and his marriage, and marries another woman.[5][7] On April 19, 1775, the Battles of Lexington and Concord begin the American Revolutionary War.
  • July 1777: The Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca nations, who inhabit and own most of Upstate New York, including territory near the Shakers at Watervliet, declare war on the United States.
  • 1778: The first new members recorded as joining the Shaker community.
  • 1779: New Light Baptists in Upstate New York and Western Massachusetts experience revivals. They hold daily meetings that include extraordinary spiritual phenomena, speaking in tongues, and visions.[10] These revivals dissipate by the end of the year.
  • 1780: On or just after the "Dark Day", Lee opens her gospel to the public. Many of the regional New Light Baptists investigate the Shakers and convert to their faith. The newfound popularity attracts the attention of the New York state government. Because of the avowed pacifism and British origin of the Shakers at a time when the American colonies are at war for independence from Britain, New York arrests and imprisons Lee and several of her followers on suspicion of espionage. They are released later that year.[11]
  • 1781 through 1783: Ann and William Lee and James Whittaker, along with some of their followers, travel on an extended missionary tour of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Upstate New York, gathering converts and establishing a network of followers throughout the Northeastern United States. In several localities, mobs attack them, and the Shakers are whipped, beaten, and assaulted.[12]
  • September 3, 1783: Effective end of the American Revolutionary War when the Treaty of Paris is signed.
  • 1784: Ann and William Lee die after returning Watervliet, New York; William on July 21, 1784, Ann on September 8, 1784. Their deaths are attributed to the after-effects of the hardships and assaults they endured during their missionary tour.[6] James Whittaker takes over leadership of the society. James Shepherd and John Partington renounce the Shakers.[7]
  • 1787: James Whittaker dies, and Joseph Meacham, a formerly Baptist minister in New Lebanon, New York and originally from Enfield, Connecticut, becomes the first American-born leader of the Shakers.[13] Meacham introduces the concept of communalism and begins "gathering into order" the scattered Shaker Believers, bringing them together into collectivized villages which are sub-divided into smaller communities called "families".[14] The village organized by Meacham at New Lebanon becomes the headquarters. John Hocknell is appointed First Elder of Watervliet Church Family.[15]
  • 1788: Joseph Meacham brings Lucy Wright, from nearby Pittsfield, Massachusetts, into the New Lebanon Ministry to serve with him as a co-leader. Together they establish an administrative structure that promotes equality of the sexes.
  • 1790: Shakers living at Hancock, Massachusetts, and Enfield, Connecticut are formally organized into villages.
  • 1792: Canterbury, New Hampshire and Tyringham, Massachusetts, Shaker villages are formally organized.
  • 1793: Formal organization of Alfred, Maine, Enfield, New Hampshire, and Harvard and Shirley, Massachusetts Shaker commune.
  • 1794: Sabbathday Lake, Maine, Shaker village is formally organized, the next-to-last, and last 18th century, major community to be formed in the Northeast.[14]
  • 1796: Joseph Meacham dies. Lucy Wright continues as the sole primary leader for the Shakers.
  • October 18, 1797: Hannah Hocknell dies.[15]
  • 1798: Theodore Bates, of Watervliet Shaker Village, invents the broom vice, used create broom brushes that are flat rather than rounded.
  • February 27, 1799: John Hocknell dies.[15]

Community growth and Western expansion

  • 1805: Wright sends Shaker missionaries to proselytize in Ohio and Kentucky, having heard of a major revival which began at the latter five years ago. The mission is a success, and Union Village is organized in Ohio.
  • 1806: Shakers are organized into the villages of Watervliet, Ohio, and Pleasant Hill, Kentucky.
  • 1807: Shaker villages organized at South Union, Kentucky, and Busro, Indiana. The latter village becomes known as West Union.[16] James Shepherd returns to Watervliet and is placed in the order established for members who left the faith but then returned.[17]
  • 1808: A village is established at Gorham, Maine.
  • 1810: A Shaker community is attempted at New Canaan, Connecticut.
  • 1812: The first written collection of Shaker hymns, Millennial Praises, is published. The attempt to form a commune at New Canaan is abandoned. On June 18, 1812, the War of 1812 breaks out between the United States and the United Kingdom and their respective allies. In September 1812, the Shaker community at West Union, Indiana, in order to escape the turmoil of the war, is temporarily disbanded and its membership takes shelter in the Ohio and Kentucky villages.
  • A branch of the New Lebanon Shaker Village, consisting of two families, is established in Canaan, New York.
  • March 1814: Shakers start returning to West Union, Indiana.
  • February 17, 1815: Ratification of the Treaty of Ghent, officially ending the War of 1812.
  • 1816: The first major Shaker writing, and their official biography of Ann Lee, Testimonies of the Life, Character, Revelations and Doctrines of our Ever Blessed Mother Ann Lee, is published.
  • 1817: A Shaker village is formed at Savoy, Massachusetts.
  • 1819: The Shaker community at Gorham is dissolved and its members relocated to Poland, Maine, where they reform into Poland Hill, a branch of the nearby Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village.
  • 1821: Lucy Wright dies. Left without her personal leadership to guide them, the Shakers codify their rules for the first time as the Millennial Laws of 1821.[18] The Shaker community at Savoy is disbanded and the membership relocated to other villages in the Northeast.
  • 1822: Two more Shaker communities formed in Ohio: North Union and Whitewater. The seventeenth and eighteenth communities overall, these are the last Shaker communities established in the Midwestern United States. Shakers also start gathering at Darby Plains, Ohio.
  • The Shakers at Darby Plains abandon their attempts to form a community there and instead relocate to Whitewater.
  • April 14, 1825: Mary Hocknell, a daughter of John Hocknell, dies.[17]
  • 1826: A Shaker village formed at Sodus Bay, New York.
  • 1827: West Union, Indiana, is dissolved after years of trouble with external conflict from non-Shaker neighbors, internal disputes, and disease. It is the first major Shaker community to permanently disband, and the only major community to do so before 1875.
  • September 10, 1833: Mary Partington, the last living and faithful member of the first band of nine English Shakers to arrive in America, dies.[17][19]
  • 1836: The Sodus Bay Shaker community, dismayed at a proposal by New York State to build a canal near the village, is dissolved and relocated to Groveland, New York. Groveland is the last of the nineteen major Shaker communities to be established.

References

  1. ^ MS 13/3, Manchester Cathedral Archive
  2. ^ Goodwillie 2016, p. 78
  3. ^ a b Goodwillie 2016, p. 79
  4. ^ Goodwillie 2016, p. 80
  5. ^ a b Edward D. Andrews, The People Called Shakers (1963), p. 13.
  6. ^ a b c Manca, Joseph (2015-08-12). "The Shakers and the American Revolution". Journal of the American Revolution. Retrieved 2019-09-04.
  7. ^ a b c Humez, Jean M. (1993-04-22). "General Introduction". In Humez, Jean M. (ed.). Mother's First-Born Daughters: Early Shaker Writings on Women and Religion. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. pp. xxxi, note 3. ISBN 9780253114525.
  8. ^ a b "Ann Lee: Her Work, her People, and their Critics - Third Paper". The Manifesto. 8 (1): 85. January 1878.
  9. ^ Goodwillie 2016, p. 83
  10. ^ J.E.A. Smith, History of Pittsfield, vol. 1 (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1869), 453.
  11. ^ Stein, The Shaker Experience in America pp. 13–14.
  12. ^ There's a map of the tour in Stein, Shaker Experience in America, pp. 20–21.
  13. ^ Andrews, People Called Shakers, chapter 3.
  14. ^ a b Andrews, People Called Shakers, p. 290.
  15. ^ a b c Goodwillie, Christian (2016-04-29). "Believers in Two Worlds: Lives of the English Shakers". In Lockley, Philip (ed.). Protestant Communalism in the Trans-Atlantic World, 1650–1850. London: Springer. p. 101. ISBN 9781137484871.
  16. ^ Andrews, People Called Shakers, p. 290-91.
  17. ^ a b c Goodwillie 2016, p. 102
  18. ^ Theodore E. Johnson, ed., "The Millennial Laws of 1821," Shaker Quarterly 7.2 (1967): 35–58.
  19. ^ Goodwillie, Christian; Wergland, Glendyne R. (2017-07-05). "Mary Partington". In Goodwillie, Christian; Wergland, Glendyne R. (eds.). Shaker Autobiographies, Biographies and Testimonies, 1806–1907. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. p. 114. ISBN 9781351548854.
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