ïWilkinson, Jemima1732╨1819religious leaderBorn in Cumberland, Rhode Island, on November 29, 1752, Jemima Wilkinson grew up in a Quaker family and early displayed a strong interest in religion. Little detail is known of her childhood. Her attendance at meetings of a New Light Baptist congregation in the aftermath of George Whitefield╒s final revival tour of New England led to her dismissal from her Friends meeting in August 1776. Two months later she fell ill of a fever from which she emerged with the conviction, conveyed to her in a vision, that she had died and had been sent back to preach to a ╥lost and guilty, gossiping, dying World.╙ She took the name Publick Universal Friend and thereafter answered to no other. She began to travel and preach throughout southern New England, and by the power of her personality and of her commanding figure even more than through her rather conventional message of repentance, she soon attracted a following. Her followers included a number of influential persons, one of whom, Judge William Potter of South Kingstown, Rhode Island, freed his slaves, abandoned his political career, and built a large addition to his mansion for her use. Meetinghouses were built by her followers, known collectively as Universal Friends, in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and New Milford, Connecticut. By 1782 she had extended her preaching as far as Philadelphia, where in 1784 she published The Universal Friend╒s Advice to Those of the Same Religious Society, largely a compilation of Biblical quotations for use in meetings. While Wilkinson was discreetly vague about the exact nature of her mission and her relation to divinity, many of her followers openly proclaimed her a messiah, a practice that roused considerable animosity among orthodox churches against the Universal Friends and their leader. In 1788 some members of the sect, having scouted out reports of the Genesee country of western New York, began a settlement near Seneca Lake. In 1790 the Friend herself arrived at the ╥Friend╒s Settlement,╙ which then had a population of 260. In 1794 she moved a few miles west to the vicinity of Crooked (now Keuka) Lake, where, with a small band of her most devoted followers, she established Jerusalem township. In later years the Friend╒s Settlement was disturbed by conflicts over ownership of the land, while outside the settlement numerous tales of dictatorial rule, harsh punishments, sexual misconduct, and other strange practices circulated widely among hostile observers. The Universal Friend died at her home, near present-day Penn Yan, New York, on July 1, 1819. The sect she had inspired disintegrated within a few years. ■styl ` ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ . !I α 5¬ ß !I ₧ !I Γ !I ( 5¬ ) !I ≡ 5¬ ± !I link `
