Pioneer Prophetess: Jemima Wilkinson, the Publick Universal Friend (review)

54Quaker History cousins and acquaintances, and with Public Friends traveling through the country visiting Friends in "the Service of Truth," it would seem reasonable that contact would have been established, but it was not. There was also a Friends neighborhood at Deep River (six miles southwest of New Garden), and it was the center from which the Quaker migration into Northwest Carolina was to come. In 1793, Deep River Quarterly Meeting set up a Monthly Meeting at Deep Creek, four miles north of Yadkinville. The Hinshaw Encyclopedia lists sixty-six persons among the earliest members, but not one can be identified with the settlers of "Quaker origin" who first settled in the same valley and on the creeks where there are now Quaker Meetings—Deep Creek, Forbush, Hunting Creek. Dutchmans Creek, or at Harmony Grove and East Bend. This later settlement of Friends in Northwest Carolina was made according to the Quaker pattern for migration: Friends settling in the area remained attached to an older meeting until they were considered to be strong enough to conduct their own business sessions and to care for a meeting; then they were ready to receive newcomers, each one with a certificate of removal or a request for membership. It would be interesting to know whether the settlers of "Quaker origin" obtained certificates of removal from the meetings to which they belonged before they started south, many to spend several years in the Shenandoah Valley before setting out for Carolina. Mr. Ramsey lists a number of reasons why they left the Society: "severe church discipline, distance from the heart of Quakerism, frontier conditions, the outbreak of war, political expediency, Baptist missionary activity, or unprecedented opportunities for pecuniary gain," but none of these circumstances prevented the growth of Quakerism in other parts of North Carolina. The conclusion he reaches, however, is satisfactory: "It seems clear that a large majority of these settlers abandoned the Quaker faith either before they reached Carolina or very shortly thereafter." Or perhaps they were disowned. Wilmington, OhioDorothy Gilbert Thorne Pioneer Prophetess: Jemima Wilkinson, the Publick Universal Friend. By Herbert A. Wisbey, Jr. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1964. xiv, 232 pages. Illustrations, appendices, bibliography, index. $4.95. Certainly Jemima Wilkinson, the Publick Universal Friend, ranks high in that long list of curious characters in American religious history and, if one excepts Anne Hutchinson, was a pioneer in that unconventional female religious leadership which perhaps reached its culmination in Mrs. Eddy. Yet she has never before been the subject of a serious scholarly study such as Professor Herbert A. Wisbey, Jr. of the Corning Community College in upstate New York now provides. Using a considerable body of material that did not become available until recent years, he examines both the leader and her following in a way that finally separates fact from legend as much as can be done. The story should be of particular interest to members of the Society of Friends because Professor Wisbey shows how much Jemima Wilkinson was always influenced by her Rhode Island Quaker origin (with an assist from the New Light Baptists) and how her appeal was therefore primarily to persons of that religious background. Philadelphians will also be interested in her Book Reviews55 activities in that city, and Pennsylvanians in the possible influence of the Ephrata Community. Professor Wisbey's main contributions are as follows: First, the Publick Universal Friend was never a conscious fraud but was completely sincere in her belief in having a religious mission as a result of hallucinations during a youthful illness which she interpreted as divine visions. Her movement was not influenced by Mother Ann Lee and the Shakers, but instead emerged simultaneously but independently as part of the American Revolutionary upheaval. There was nothing very original or striking about her teachings, and actually celibacy was not an important aspect of her group. Her converts were usually of a higher economic status than the Shakers, and she did not form a genuinely communist society. She was not as covetous of her followers' possessions as she has been accused of being, and the stories of her claiming miraculous powers have been greatly exaggerated (among such anecdotes that apparently have to be...