New Forest Shakers

Last updated

The New Forest Shakers or Walworth Jumpers (also Children of God, Girlingites or Convulsionists) were a new religious movement created by Mary Anne Girling (or Mary Ann Girling) in the 1870s in England. Originally from Suffolk, Girling preached the Second Coming, celibacy, chastity and communal life.

Contents

In Suffolk

Mary Ann Clouting was born in Little Glemham, Suffolk in 1827. She married George Stanton Girling and they had two children. Sometime around 1858, Girling received a vision from Jesus Christ in her Ipswich bedroom. [1] She apparently received a second vision in 1864 informing her that the second coming was at hand. [2] Girling left her husband and children, and travelled around the villages and towns of Suffolk preaching her mission. [3] Within 18 months "Girlingism" had 50 adherents. [4] This ecstatic, esoteric sect claimed that they died with conversion, and were then reborn to eternal life.

Walworth Jumpers

In 1871, having been persecuted and threatened in Suffolk, Girling went to London. [5] She initially fell in with the Peculiar People of Plumstead and preached to them there. [6] She soon fell out with them when she began claiming her own divinity, and she withdrew from their circle taking many of their followers with her. [6] Girling's mission began operating from a railway arch near the Walworth Road, [7] where she preached excitedly before crowds of several thousands, which led to the nickname "the Jumpers of Walworth." [8] Attacked by hostile mobs in London, Girling announced to her followers in 1872 that they were going to move to Hordle in the New Forest in Hampshire. [9]

New Forest Shakers

In January 1873 Girling and her followers arrived in Hordle. [10] They settled in New Forest Lodge, a house which was partially paid for by one of the followers Julia Wood, [11] the remainder being mortgaged. 160 believers gathered there, cultivating vegetables and worshipping. They were prohibited from sexual activity, as well as from economic transactions. They proceeded to farm the land, but Girling forbade the sect to sell either their produce or their labour. [12] The mortgage remained unpaid and on a bitterly cold night of December 1874, in the rain, sleet and snow, 60 women, 35 men and 45 children were evicted. [13] All the furniture was left along a half mile stretch of the road. [13] It included 3 pianos, 77 beds, boxes of eggs, butter and vegetables valued at about £1,000 and worthless by the end of the night. [13]

They were aided by the political philosopher Auberon Herbert, who gave them temporary shelter on his estate in nearby Ashley. [14] Other prominent sympathisers of their plight included liberal politician William Cowper, [15] and local eccentric and spiritualist Andrew Peterson. [16] By February 1875, they had returned to Hordle, camping in a field near New Forest Lodge. [17] They were evicted in 1878, [18] but a local landowner gave them a field in nearby Tiptoe where they set up camp. After this, the sect faded from national prominence. [19] The census of 1881 records 64 people were encamped in the field, [20] but by 1886 the community was reduced to 12 women and 8 men. [21] Girling died from uterine cancer on 18 September 1886 and the sect broke up. [22] Girling was buried in Hordle churchyard. [13]

Notes

  1. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 23
  2. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 25
  3. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 29
  4. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 32
  5. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 45
  6. 1 2 Hoare 2005 , p. 103
  7. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 104
  8. ↑ Glinert 2009 , p. 252
  9. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 136
  10. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 139
  11. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 137
  12. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 149
  13. 1 2 3 4 "Jo Ivey, Report on New Forest Traditions Archived 2013-03-09 at the Wayback Machine , pages 27-8. New Forest Museum
  14. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 281
  15. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 194
  16. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 160
  17. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 306
  18. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 343
  19. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 374
  20. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 377
  21. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 392
  22. ↑ Hoare 2005 , p. 395

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shakers</span> Christian monastic denomination

The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers, are a millenarian restorationist Christian sect founded c. 1747 in England and then organized in the United States in the 1780s. They were initially known as "Shaking Quakers" because of their ecstatic behavior during worship services. Espousing egalitarian ideals, women took on spiritual leadership roles alongside men, including founding leaders such as Jane Wardley, Ann Lee, and Lucy Wright. The Shakers emigrated from England and settled in Revolutionary colonial America, with an initial settlement at Watervliet, New York, in 1774. They practice a celibate and communal utopian lifestyle, pacifism, uniform charismatic worship, and their model of equality of the sexes, which they institutionalized in their society in the 1780s. They are also known for their simple living, architecture, technological innovation, music, and furniture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Lee</span> Founder of the Shakers (1736–1784)

Ann Lee, commonly known as Mother Ann Lee, was the founding leader of the Shakers, later changed to United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing following her death. She was born during a time of the Evangelical revival in England, and became a figure that greatly influenced religion at this time, especially in the Americas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pleasant Hill, Kentucky</span> United States historic place

Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, USA, is the site of a Shaker religious community that was active from 1805 to 1910. Following a preservationist effort that began in 1961, the site, now a National Historic Landmark, has become a popular tourist destination. Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, or Shakertown, as it is known by residents of the area, is located 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Lexington, in Kentucky's Bluegrass region. It is a National Historic Landmark District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hordle</span> Human settlement in England

Hordle is a village and civil parish in the county of Hampshire, England. It is situated between the Solent coast and the New Forest, and is bordered by the towns of Lymington and New Milton. Like many New Forest parishes Hordle has no village centre. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Tiptoe and Everton as well as part of Downton. The parish was originally much larger; stretching from the New Forest boundary to Hurst Castle.

Squ-sacht-un, also known as John Slocum, was a member of the Squaxin Island Tribe, Coast Salish, and a reputed holy man and prophet who founded the Indian Shaker Church in 1881.

Elspeth Buchan (1738–1791) was the founder of a Scottish religious sect known as the Buchanites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Era of Manifestations</span> Religious event (1837 to the mid-1850s)

The Era of Manifestations was a period from 1837 to the mid-1850s when Shakers came under a spiritual revival marked by visions and ecstatic experiences among the followers. They expressed their visions in song, dance and drawings.

Credonia Mwerinde was the high priestess and co-founder of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, a sect that splintered from the Roman Catholic Church in Uganda. Before founding the movement she was a shopkeeper, brewer of banana beer, and a prostitute. Mwerinde was also a member of a religious group devoted to the Virgin Mary. She and two other group members approached Joseph Kibweteere in 1989, and said that the Virgin Mary had instructed him to take them in. Kibweteere did, and he was particularly struck by her claim of a Marian apparition near his home, which related to a vision he himself had five years earlier. Together Mwerinde and Kibweteere would found the Movement in 1989.

Philip Hoare is an English writer, especially of history and biography. He instigated the Moby Dick Big Read project. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Southampton and Leverhulme artist-in-residence at the Marine Institute, Plymouth University, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiptoe, Hampshire</span> Human settlement in England

Tiptoe is a small village in the New Forest National Park in Hampshire, England. It lies mostly within the civil parish of Hordle and partly within the civil parish of Sway. It is 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) west of Sway village, and about 2 miles (3.2 km) northeast of the town of New Milton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Wright</span> Final Solo-Leader of the Shakers from 1796 to 1821

Lucy Wright was the leader of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, also known as the Shakers, from 1796 until 1821. At that time, a woman's leadership of a religious sect was a radical departure from Protestant Christianity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Girling</span>

Mary Ann Girling (1827–1886) was an English religious leader, the founder of the sect called "The People of God", also known as New Forest Shakers.

Arthur Thomas Lloyd (1917–2009) was a local historian of the New Forest region of Hampshire, England, and a writer and teacher.

Marcellina was an early Christian Carpocratian religious leader in the mid-second century AD known primarily from the writings of Irenaeus and Origen. She originated in Alexandria, but moved to Rome during the episcopate of Anicetus. She attracted large numbers of followers and founded the Carpocratian sect of Marcellians. Like other Carpocratians, Marcellina and her followers believed in antinomianism, also known as libertinism, the idea that obedience to laws and regulations is unnecessary in order to attain salvation. They believed that Jesus was only a man, but saw him as a model to be emulated, albeit one which a believer was capable of surpassing. Marcellina's community appears to have sought to literally implement the foundational Carpocratian teaching of social egalitarianism. The Marcellians in particular are reported to have branded their disciples on the insides of their right earlobes and venerated images of Jesus as well as Greek philosophers such as Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle. Although the Marcellians identified themselves as "gnostics", many modern scholars do not classify them as members of the sect of Gnosticism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chronology of Shakers</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaker communities</span> Settlements of the Shakers sect of Christianity

The Shakers are a sect of Christianity which practices celibacy, communal living, confession of sin, egalitarianism, and pacifism. After starting in England, it is thought that these communities spread into the cotton towns of North West England, with the football team of Bury taking on the Shaker name to acknowledge the Shaker community of Bury.The Shakers left England for the English colonies in North America in 1774. As they gained converts, the Shakers established numerous communities in the late-18th century through the entire 19th century. The first villages organized in Upstate New York and the New England states, and, through Shaker missionary efforts, Shaker communities appeared in the Midwestern states. Communities of Shakers were governed by area bishoprics and within the communities individuals were grouped into "family" units and worked together to manage daily activities. By 1836 eighteen major, long-term societies were founded, comprising some sixty families, along with a failed commune in Indiana. Many smaller, short-lived communities were established over the course of the 19th century, including two failed ventures into the Southeastern United States and an urban community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Shakers peaked in population by the 1840s and early 1850s, with a membership between 4,000 and 9,000. Growth in membership began to stagnate by the mid 1850s. In the turmoil of the American Civil War and subsequent Industrial Revolution, Shakerism went into severe decline. As the number of living Shakers diminished, Shaker communes were disbanded or otherwise ceased to exist. Some of their buildings and sites have become museums, and many are historic districts under the National Register of Historic Places. The only active community is Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in Maine, which is composed of at least three active members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Wardley</span> Wardley, Jane (fl. 1747–1770), a founder of the Shakers

Jane Wardley, also known as Mother Jane Wardley, was a founding leader of what became the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as Shakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Bridges (preacher)</span>

William Bridges was a Methodist local preacher, hat block maker and founder of the Plumstead Peculiar People.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeannette H. Walworth</span> American writer (1835 - 1918)

Jeannette H. Walworth was an American novelist and journalist. Born in Philadelphia, in 1837, she removed to Natchez, Mississippi, while a child, with her father, Charles Julius Hadermann, a German baron, who became the president of Jefferson College. On his death, the family removed to Louisiana. When she was sixteen years old, Walworth became a governess. In 1873, having married Maj. Douglas Walworth, of Natchez, she accompanied him to his plantation in southern Arkansas, and then to Memphis, Tennessee, before finally removing to New York City. In addition to contributions to the periodical press, the Continent, The Commercial Appeal, and other magazines, she published several novels. Walworth died in 1918.

<i>The Examination of a Witch</i> (painting) Painting of a suspected witch, Mary Fisher

The Examination of a Witch is a painting by T. H. Matteson. There are two versions of the painting, one in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, the other in the Portrait Gallery of the Darwin R. Barker Museum.

References

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.