Chronology of Shakers

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The chronology of Shakers is a list of important events pertaining to the history of 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 spans the emergence of denomination in the mid-18th century, the emigration of the Shakers to New York on the eve of the American Revolution, subsequent missionary work and the establishment of nineteen major planned communities, and the continued persistence of the faith through decline into the 21st century.

Contents

Chronology

Emergence in England

Precursor movements

c.1054 AD

c.late 1300s

  • The proto-Protestant movement known as Lollardy arises. Whilst the extent of direct connection between John Wycliffe's followers and subsequent movements is debated, Lollard ideas would lay inspiration in the religious soil of England; Quakerism was strongest in parishes in Essex where Lollardy had previously taken hold. [1]

c.1500s

c.1650

1706

  • Elie Marion leads a group of millenarian group of Camisards, also known as the "French Prophets", into London from France. Known for visions and prophetic sermons, their activities and writings influence the religious and political thought for many in England.

1729

Emergence of the Shakers

1736

1747

  • Jane and James Wardley, residents of Manchester, form a house church at the residence of John Townley in Bolton, where the attendees practice ecstatic worship. Reportedly, they are former Quakers who dissent from the quietism - solemn, quietly meditative worship - in that denomination, instead desiring a more expressive form of 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.

1761

  • January 5: Lee marries Abraham Standerin. [2]

1766

  • John Hocknell, after initially being drawn to Methodism, joins the Wardley Society. [3] Around this time, the Partington family also starts hosting church meetings. [4]

c.1768

  • John Hocknell brings his daughter, Mary, to live with Ann Lee and her brother William, in the house of their father, John Lees. [4]

1769

c.1770

  • While in prison for "disturbing the peace", Lee receives a vision and is convicted of the need for universal celibacy among all Christians. The Shakers later believe that she experienced the Second Coming of Christ.

1772 through 1774

  • By this time, the Shakers have become disruptive, and Ann Lee and others are jailed more than once.

Early missionary work in the United States

1774

1775

1777

1778

1779

1780

1781 through 1783

1783

1784

Re-organization and institutionalization

1787

1788

1790

1792

1793

1794

1796

1787

1798

1799

Community growth and Western expansion

1800

1801

1805

1806

1807

1808

1810

1811

1812

1814

1815

1816

1817

1818

1819

1820

1821

1822

1823

1825

1826

1827

c.1830

1833

1836

Era of Manifestations

1837

1841

1842

1843

1844

1845

1847

1848

Civil War era

1859

1860

1861

1862

1865

Post-Civil War decline

1871

1872

1875

1889

1890

1892

1895

1896

1898

1899

Decline in the 20th century

1900

1902

1906

1908

1910

1912

1916

1917

1918

1922

1923

1924

1931

1938

1947

Revival and schism

1960

1961

1963

1965

1971

1975

1978

1986

1990

1992

The last community

1996

2006

2017

References

  1. Davies, Adrian (February 2000). "The Quakers in English Society, 1655-1725". Oxford University Press : 129–139 via Oxford Academic.
  2. MS 13/3, Manchester Cathedral Archive
  3. Goodwillie 2016, p. 78
  4. 1 2 Goodwillie 2016, p. 79
  5. Goodwillie 2016, p. 80
  6. 1 2 Edward D. Andrews, The People Called Shakers (1963), p. 13.
  7. 1 2 3 Manca, Joseph (2015-08-12). "The Shakers and the American Revolution". Journal of the American Revolution. Retrieved 2019-09-04.
  8. 1 2 3 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.
  9. 1 2 "Ann Lee: Her Work, her People, and their Critics - Third Paper". The Manifesto. 8 (1): 85. January 1878.
  10. Goodwillie 2016, p. 83
  11. J.E.A. Smith, History of Pittsfield, vol. 1 (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1869), 453.
  12. Stein, The Shaker Experience in America pp. 13–14.
  13. There's a map of the tour in Stein, Shaker Experience in America, pp. 20–21.
  14. Andrews, People Called Shakers, chapter 3.
  15. 1 2 Andrews, People Called Shakers, p. 290.
  16. 1 2 3 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.
  17. Andrews, People Called Shakers, p. 290-91.
  18. 1 2 3 4 Goodwillie 2016, p. 102
  19. "Living Black and Free in 18th and 19th Century Albany, New York". Albany County. p. 16. Archived from the original on July 31, 2016. Retrieved September 4, 2019.
  20. 1 2 Wergland, Glendyne R. (2011). Sisters in the Faith: Shaker Women and Equality of the Sexes. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. p. 56. ISBN   9781558498631.
  21. Blake, Nelson M. (1960). "Eunice Against the Shakers". New York History. 41 (4): 366. ISSN   0146-437X. JSTOR   23153650.
  22. Woo 2010, pp. 213-214
  23. Woo, Ilyon (2010). The Great Divorce: A Nineteenth-Century Mother's Extraordinary Fight Against Her Husband, the Shakers, and Her Times. New York: Grove Atlantic. pp. 213–214. ISBN   9780802197054.
  24. Murray 1994, p. 95
  25. 1 2 3 "South Union, KY - Shakers, Slaves, and Freemen". Notable Kentucky African Americans Database. Retrieved September 4, 2019.
  26. Blake 1960, pp. 371-372
  27. Blake 1960, pp. 374-377
  28. Murray, Stuart (1994). Shaker Heritage Guidebook: Exploring the Historic Sites, Museums & Collections. Spencertown: Golden Hill Press. pp.  35. ISBN   9780961487669.
  29. Blake 1960, p. 377
  30. Elizabeth De Wolfe, Shaking the Faith: Women, Family, and Mary Marshall Dyer's Anti-Shaker Campaign, 1815-1867 (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2002): 86-97.
  31. Neal, Julia (January 13, 2015). The Kentucky Shakers. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. p. 61. ISBN   9780813148670.
  32. Theodore E. Johnson, ed., "The Millennial Laws of 1821," Shaker Quarterly 7.2 (1967): 35–58.
  33. 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.
  34. Stein 1992, p. 175-176.
  35. Stein 1992, p. 176.
  36. Stein 1992, p. 177, 180.
  37. Stein 1992, p. 177; 181, table 2.
  38. Stein 1992, p. 183, 198-199.
  39. 1 2 Paterwic 2009, p. 143.
  40. Goodwillie 2016, pp. 102-103
  41. Stein 1992, p. 199, 203.
  42. Stein 1992, p. 202.
  43. Stein 1992, p. 201.
  44. Stein 1992, p. 224-225.
  45. Paterwic 2009, p. 138.
  46. Stein 1992, p. 223-224.
  47. Stein 1992, p. 228.
  48. Stein 1992, p. 502, note 176.
  49. 1 2 Paterwic 2009, p. 172
  50. Paterwic 2009, p. 139.
  51. Whitson 1983, p. 25.
  52. Stein 1992, p. 384
  53. Patterson, Daniel (2007-04-14). "Shakers Appearing in the Film". Folkstreams . Archived from the original on June 6, 2007. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
  54. Paterwic, Stephen J. (2009-09-28). The A to Z of the Shakers. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. p. 116. ISBN   978-0-8108-7056-7.
  55. Stein 1992, p. 385-389; Paterwic 2009, pp.116-117
  56. Stein 1992, pp. 387-389
  57. Stein 1992, pp. 389-393
  58. "Maine Voices Live with Brother Arnold". Portland Press Herald . 2019-09-10. Retrieved 2020-09-11.
  59. Chase, Stacey (February 28, 2010). "He left the Shakers for love". Boston.com . Retrieved 2020-09-11.
  60. Brogan, Beth (2017-01-03). "World's oldest Shaker dies in Maine; only two remain". Bangor Daily News . Retrieved 2020-09-11.

Works cited