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 Jemima Wilkinson (1752-1819)
'Resurrection' inspired her to preach

  By MARIA MIRO JOHNSON
Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer

Whether Jemima Wilkinson of Cumberland ever claimed to be the second coming of Christ is disputable.

She did believe she'd died and been resurrected, a la Lazarus, at which point she changed her name to the "Publick Universal Friend" and went off preaching through the countryside.

By the time she died, she had many followers -- but also many detractors.

Wilkinson was born in 1752, the eighth of 12 children. Her father, a Quaker, was a cousin of Stephen Hopkins, who signed the Declaration of Independence. Her mother died when Wilkinson was 12 or 13.

As a girl, Wilkinson was interested in religious ideas, and could spout biblical phrases with ease. She got caught up for a while in the Methodist revivalist movement of the 1770s, then started attending meetings of a new Cumberland sect, the New Light Baptist Group, causing her to be dismissed from the Society of Friends.

It was in October 1776 that she fell ill with a fever and had a "vision" that convinced her she should preach. For more than 40 years, she did, traveling all over New England and attracting large crowds.

Meeting houses were built for her in East Greenwich and in New Milford, Conn.

Wilkinson did not preach a new theology, but was similar to the Quakers in opposing violence and slavery, and emphasizing a do-unto-others theme. Her warnings about how God would punish the sinful were especially effective. As one observer put it: "She Preaches up Terror very alarming."

Among Wilkinson's followers was Judge William Potter of South Kingstown, who is said to have freed his slaves and given up politics because of her preaching. He also built a 14-room addition to his mansion, for use as her headquarters.

One story that's reportedly still told in Kingston -- possibly apocryphal and meant to discredit her -- has Potter visiting Wilkinson in her private quarters, only to be interrupted by Mrs. Potter.

Wilkinson supposedly defended herself by saying she was only ministering to one of her lambs, whereupon Mrs. Potter is said to have retorted: "Minister to your lambs all you want, but in the future please leave my old ram alone."

"A whole body of folklore, much of it hostile, has grown up around the personality of this unusual woman," according to the entry on Wilkinson in the reference book Notable American Women. "Many of the stories alleging sexual immoralities and messianic pretensions were undoubtedly circulated to discredit her role as a woman teacher and to counteract her effectiveness as a religious leader."

Wilkinson made her last home in Yates County, N.Y. She died of congestive heart failure in 1819, at 67. Her sect dissolved within 20 years.

A sympathetic biography, Pioneer Prophetess, concludes that Wilkinson sincerely believed she was divinely called, and gives her credit for having succeeded despite a lack of education and experience.

"To the chagrin of some men, she demonstrated that a woman could stand before large crowds and preach a sermon that many found moving. She was accepted as a leader of both men and women and inspired one of the earliest settlements in western New York. Few women of the colonial period of American history have matched the accomplishments of Jemima Wilkinson, the Publick Universal Friend."

Sources: Pioneer Prophetess, by Herbert A. Wisbey, Jr. (available at the Johnston public library), and Notable American Women, published by Harvard University.

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