Jemima Wilkinson, "The Universal Friend"

1752 - 1819  (66 years)

• Name	Jemima Wilkinson  [1, 2, 3, 4]
  Suffix	"The Universal Friend"
  Birth	29 Nov 1752	Cumberland, Providence, RI   [5, 6]
  Gender	Female
  Death	1 Jul 1819	Jerusalem, Yates (then Ontario), NY   [5]
  Person ID	I9119	My Genealogy
  Last Modified	17 Sep 2023

  
  

  Father	Jeremiah Wilkinson, >,   b. 4 Jun 1707, Smithfield, Providence, Rhode Island, British Colonial America d. Abt 1787 (Age 79 years)
  Mother	Amey Whipple,   b. 24 Oct 1718, Smithfield, Providence, Rhode Island, British Colonial America d. 1 Sep 1764, Cumberland, Providence, Rhode Island, British Colonial America (Age 45 years)
  Marriage	9 Jun 1738	Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
  Family ID	F4241	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  She never married. She was the founder of the Society of Universal Friends, and she called herself "The Universal Friend." She seemed to have preached sexual abstinence and strict adherence to the Ten Commandments. She and her followers eventually established a settlement near Penn Yan, Yates County, New York, when the area was still essentially wilderness. She, along with Mother Ann Lee, founder of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Reappearing or better known as the "Shakers," were the first female religious leaders to have appeared in the early days of the American republic. Her religious movement did not last much beyond her death.

  
  

• Sources

  [S142] Rev. Israel Wilkinson, A.M., Memoirs of the Wilkinson Family in America (Jacksonville, Ill. (Excerpts available at http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bbunce77/Wilkinson001.html. A complete copy is available at http://content.ancestry.com, p. 132, 423-448. [S1168] Yates County, New York, The Yates County Office of Public History (http://www.yatescounty.org/upload/12/historian/index.html : accessed ), ., 1 October 2010; http://www.yatescounty.org/upload/12/historian/friend.html. [S1169] David Hudson, Memoir of Jemima Wilkinsom, A Preacheress of the Eighteenth Century: Containing an Authentic Narrative of Her Life and Character and of the Rise, Progress and Conclusion of Her Ministry. (Bath, NY: R. L. Underhill and Company, 1844),. Accessed; October 2010; http://books.google.com/books?id=0hMUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Jemima+Wilkinson%22&hl=en&ei=bAeqTKGmG4H48AbWr7yrDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false; The 1844 edition appears to be a republishing and perhaps minor revision of his 1821 version. [S1170] Stafford C. Cleveland, History and Directory of Yates County: Containing a Sketch of its Original Settlement by the Publid Universal Friends, the Lessor Company and Others, With an Account of Individual Pioneers and Their Families; Also of Other Leadin, Accessed; October 2010; http://books.google.com/books?id=9WJKAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Jemima+Wilkinson&hl=en&ei=OhKqTN3KO8P98AbxqMDUDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDgQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false. [S142] Rev. Israel Wilkinson, A.M., Memoirs of the Wilkinson Family in America (Jacksonville, Ill. (Excerpts available at http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bbunce77/Wilkinson001.html. A complete copy is available at http://content.ancestry.com, p. 132. [S1169] David Hudson, Memoir of Jemima Wilkinsom, A Preacheress of the Eighteenth Century: Containing an Authentic Narrative of Her Life and Character and of the Rise, Progress and Conclusion of Her Ministry. (Bath, NY: R. L. Underhill and Company, 1844),. Accessed; October 2010; http://books.google.com/books?id=0hMUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Jemima+Wilkinson%22&hl=en&ei=bAeqTKGmG4H48AbWr7yrDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false; The 1844 edition appears to be a republishing and perhaps minor revision of his 1821 version. Hudson gave her birth as 1751.