Ann Lee

Religious Leader

  • Born: February 29, 1736
  • Birthplace: Manchester, England
  • Died: September 8, 1784
  • Place of death: Niskeyuna (now Watervliet), New York

English-born American religious leader

Lee was the founder of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Coming, a religious sect commonly known as the Shakers. Members of the sect believed Lee to be the female embodiment of Christ and the maternal component of the Father/Mother God.

Area of achievement: Religion and theology

Early Life

Information about Ann Lee’s childhood is scarce. According to Shaker tradition, she was born in the slums of Manchester, a manufacturing town in northwestern England. Cathedral records indicate that she was baptized in the Anglican Church on June 1, 1742. Apparently, she was the second of eight children, five boys and three girls, in the John Lee household. Her father was a blacksmith. Little is known about her mother, whose name is unknown, except that she was a pious woman in the Anglican Church.

Like most eighteenth century girls born into English working-class families, Ann Lee received no formal education and remained illiterate throughout her life, but she was industrious from her youth. As a teenager, she worked in the textile mills; at age twenty, she became a cook in a public infirmary. A turning point in Lee’s life occurred in 1758, when she joined a society of religious dissenters led by Jane and James Wardley.

The Wardley group, called the Shaking Quakers by their critics, called people to repent and to be prepared for the imminent reappearance of Christ, who would sweep away all anti-Christian denominations and establish a millennial kingdom on earth. Worship at the Wardleys’ was informal and spirited. Believers gathered, sat briefly in silent meditation, and then responded to the impulses of the spirit. The services included ecstatic utterances, prophecies concerning the end of the world, physical manifestations such as falling and jerking, and personal testimonies of supernatural assistance.

In 1762, Lee was persuaded by her parents to marry Abraham Standerin, an illiterate blacksmith who may have worked for Lee’s father. Historians have speculated that this marriage was arranged to wean Lee from her association with the Wardley sect. The marriage, which Lee apparently never desired, resulted in the birth of four children, all of whom died in infancy. The delivery of her last child was especially difficult. Forceps were used, and Lee lost much blood and almost her life. When the infant died in October of 1766, the physically weak and emotionally dispirited mother sought divine consolation. In the midst of her anguish, Lee became convinced that sexual cohabitation was the source not only of her travails but also of all evil. For Lee and for her future religious followers, salvation from sin demanded public confession and holy, celibate living after the pattern of Jesus.

Life’s Work

After the death of her fourth child, Ann Lee assumed a more vocal and prominent role in the Wardley society. By the early 1770’s, this religious sect was engaging in confrontational tactics designed to attract attention to its teachings. On several occasions, for example, the Shakers invaded the sanctuaries of congregations gathered for worship to disrupt the church services and proclaim their message of apocalyptic judgment. For these actions, they were prosecuted for assault, the destruction of property, and the breaching of the Sabbath. Among those fined and imprisoned was Ann Lee Standerin. While in prison, Lee received a “grand vision.” In this vision, Christ appeared to Lee and told her she was to be his special instrument. As the “Mother of the New Creation” she would teach confession as the door to regeneration and celibacy as its “rule and cross.”

Like many other groups of religious dissenters throughout history, the Shakers thrived on opposition, which united them against the “wicked world.” Persecution, however, also brought much unpleasantness. Neighbors, disliking the noise, speaking in tongues, and dark prophecies of the Shaker meetings, verbally abused the members of the sect, charged them with heresy and witchcraft, and even threatened mob violence. Local authorities permitted the sect to worship together in private, but no street preaching or disruptive intrusions into other public services of worship were allowed. Although the sect won a few converts, such as John Lee, Ann’s father, and William Lee, her brother, under these difficult circumstances, the prospects for evangelical success in England were limited.

In the spring of 1774, Lee received another vision informing her that a harvest of souls awaited her ministry in America. Shortly thereafter, eight members of the sect, plus Abraham Standerin, who never joined the group, left England for New York. The immigrants did not include the Wardleys, who by now disagreed with some of the teachings of Mother Ann. After a three-month voyage across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the ship Mariah, the group arrived in New York City on August 6. Financial problems forced the scattering of the small Shaker band. Several members sought work in upper New York State, near Albany. Lee remained in Manhattan, finding employment as a domestic worker. At this time, Lee still lived in a platonic relationship with her husband. Within a few years, however, the couple formally separated. Unlike Lee, Abraham Standerin refused to accept the Shaker commitment to celibacy.

In 1779, the Shakers purchased an isolated piece of land in Niskeyuna, near Albany. The dozen disciples of Mother Ann constructed a small building that served as both their communal quarters and meetinghouse. In April of 1780, two travelers stumbled upon the Shaker site. After receiving food, shelter, and religious instruction, the men promised to tell others in the New Light Baptist Church, where they were members, about the witness of Mother Ann. On May 19, 1780, the Shakers held their first worship service open to the general public. According to Shaker tradition, on this “Dark Day in New England” the Sun did not shine, a phenomenon that may have been caused by smoke from burning farmland. In the excitement of the meeting, several visitors experienced religious conversion. News about the spiritual quickenings at Niskeyuna spread throughout the towns of New Lebanon and Albany, and soon the Shaker site was deluged with curious and spiritually hungry guests.

Upstate New York, like other areas in the British colonies at this time, was bitterly divided between the American patriots who supported independence and the Loyalists (or Tories) who opposed independence from England. When a born-again Shaker convert was found by American patriots bringing some sheep to the commune at Niskeyuna, the anti-Tory forces became suspicious. Believing the Shaker sect to be a front organization for the British crown, the American authorities issued a warrant for Lee’s arrest. To secure her release, William Lee, Ann’s brother, asked General James Clinton of Albany to write a letter about the situation to the New York governor. The American general agreed, and with his assistance, Mother Ann was freed on December 4.

Publicity surrounding the arrest and release of Mother Ann aroused public sympathy from many New Yorkers who questioned why the authorities, who were allegedly fighting for freedom and personal liberty, would harass and imprison a religious pacifist who caused no harm to anyone. Buoyed by this positive response from the public, Mother Ann, William Lee, and James Whittaker, another Shaker elder who had come with the group from England, decided to begin a missionary tour into the neighboring states. Between May of 1781 and September of 1783, the three itinerant English Evangelists traveled throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut spreading the tenets of the Shaker faith.

In New England, as in England, Shaker success and opposition went hand in hand. In community after community, Mother Ann’s simple message, regeneration through confession and perfection through celibacy, provoked a great response. On several occasions, opponents stormed the meetings and quarters of the itinerant preachers, insulting, threatening, and even stoning and beating them nearly to death. In Harvard, Massachusetts, for example, when rumors circulated that the Shakers refused to support the American revolutionary cause, local officials called the militia to drive the Shaker leaders out of town. After a three-week stay in Stonington, Connecticut, the Shaker ambassadors were warned by members of the local Baptist society to leave town within twenty-four hours or face brutal beatings. In Petersham, Massachusetts, an angry mob attacked Mother Ann, dragged her down a flight of stairs feet first, and ripped off her garments. Despite, or perhaps in some cases because of, the fierce opposition, the saintly female pacifist committed new converts to the Shaker faith in nearly every town she entered. Her evangelistic successes during this twenty-eight-month missionary tour laid the foundation for the establishment of future Shaker communities in Harvard, Shirley, and Hancock, Massachusetts, and in Enfield, Connecticut.

In September of 1783, the weary itinerants returned to their home in New York. Shortly after their arrival, the elders at Niskeyuna began the economic experiment in joint ownership for which later Shaker communities would become well known. The resulting form of Shaker communism, established so “that the poor might have an equal privilege of the gospel with the rich,” rested on the common understanding that whatever was gained by individual industry would be used for the benefit and good of the whole society. The Shaker edict “Give all members of the Church an equal privilege, according to their abilities, to do good, as well as an equal privilege to receive according to their needs” became a central tenet of Shaker culture for the next two centuries.

Despite the tenacious spirit of the English immigrants, the years of toil, travel, persecution, and poverty took their toll on the Lee family. On July 21, 1784, William Lee died. According to Shaker tradition, he did not “appear to die by any natural infirmity; but he seemed to give up his life in sufferings.” The death of Ann Lee’s brother and spiritual comrade saddened the founder of the faith. The ailing leader, harassed in both body and spirit from her youth, yearned to be freed from her earthly travails. Less than two months after William’s death, early in the morning of September 8, 1784, Mother Ann exclaimed her final words, “I see Brother William coming, in a golden chariot, to take me home.”

News of the passing of the “Mother of Zion” shocked many of Ann Lee’s followers, who believed, in spite of her rejection of the doctrine, that her earthly ministry would last one thousand years. Although many followers lost faith and fell away from the church, the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Coming under the leadership of James Whittaker—the sole remaining member of the Shaker triumvirate—survived this time of crisis. Notwithstanding its twentieth century demise, the Shaker movement exhibited an inner vitality and strength that enabled it to outlive all subsequent utopian experiments in New World socialism.

Significance

The daughter of an illiterate blacksmith from Manchester, England, Ann Lee lived most of her life in dire poverty. She never attended school and never read a book. None of her children survived infancy. She suffered through a difficult marriage and divorce. Yet Lee was revered as the female embodiment of God by thousands of American men and women who called her Mother Ann, who pledged all their belongings to her cause, and who, in time, attempted to recall and publish for future generations every word she uttered.

As the charismatic leader of a millennialist movement, Mother Ann possessed an extraordinary power over people. For her followers, her saintly life was proof enough of the truth of her teachings. Although she never attempted to develop a systematic theology, her thoughts on the importance of public confession, celibate living, and the need to share one’s worldly possessions inspired many people to strive for human perfection. Moreover, her understanding of God as a feminine as well as a masculine deity provided future generations of Shakers with a theological basis for promoting equal rights for women.

Bibliography

Andrews, Edward Deming. The People Called Shakers: A Search for the Perfect Society. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1953. Until the publication of Stephen Stein’s 1992 text, this was the definitive work on the Shaker movement. Although dated, this sympathetic treatment remains an excellent introduction to the study of Shaker origins.

Bencini, Robert F. Ms. Inventor: Circular Saws, Flat Brooms, and Clothes Pins: The Remarkable Inventions of Ann Lee. San Francisco, Calif.: Robert D. Reed, 2001. This work focuses on Lee’s inventions, including an early computer, the rocking chair, and clothespins. Bencini describes how Lee and other Shakers were innovative inventors but were too humble to take credit for their discoveries.

Brewer, Priscilla J. Shaker Communities, Shaker Lives. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1986. A scholarly yet sympathetic treatment of the origins of, and developments within, Shakerism to 1904.

Campion, Nardi Reeder. Mother Ann Lee: Morning Star of the Shakers. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1990. Perhaps the best biography of Ann Lee, this volume is a revised edition of Campion’s 1976 book Ann the Word. Includes bibliographic references.

Francis, Richard. Ann, the Word: The Story of Ann Lee, Female Messiah, Mother of the Shakers, the Woman Clothed with the Sun. New York: Arcade, 2001. An updated biography by a novelist and professor, recounting Lee’s life and the early, radical history of the Shaker movement.

Humez, Jean M., ed. Mother’s First-Born Daughters: Early Shaker Writings on Women and Religion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Although Mother Ann never wrote a book, reminiscences of her life and many of her sayings were later compiled and published by her followers. Chapter 1 of this volume includes a number of testimonies about the beloved Shaker founder.

Joy, Arthur F. The Queen of the Shakers. Minneapolis, Minn.: Denison, 1960. A biography of Ann Lee drawn largely from uncritical Shaker sources.

Stein, Stephen J. The Shaker Experience in America: A History of the United Society of Believers. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992. The best single-volume textbook to survey the history of the Shaker church from its origins to its twentieth century demise.

Great Events from History: The Eighteenth Century, 1701-1800: 1739-1742: First Great Awakening; October 30, 1768: Methodist Church Is Established in Colonial America; 1773-1788: African American Baptist Church Is Founded; January 16, 1786: Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty; July 28-October 16, 1789: Episcopal Church Is Established; 1790’s-1830’s: Second Great Awakening.