1 oct. 1775 - Jemima Wilkinson becomes Public Universal Friend

Description:

Jemima Wilkinson, also called (from October 1776) Publick Universal Friend, (born November 29, 1752, Cumberland, Rhode Island [U.S.]—died July 1, 1819, near present-day Penn Yan, New York, U.S.), American religious leader who founded an unorthodox Christian sect, the Universal Friends, many of whose adherents declared her a messiah.

Wilkinson grew up in a Quaker family and early displayed a strong interest in religion. 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 as a spirit to preach to a “lost and guilty, gossiping, dying World.” She took the name Publick Universal Friend and thereafter answered to no other. The Publick Universal Friend was said to be neither male nor female, but both Wilkinson and the followers of the Friend used male pronouns to refer to him. Indeed, the single published work by the Friend was signed, “your friend and brother,” and the Friend and various female followers commonly adopted more masculine dress.

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