Ann Lee

(1736 – 1784)

No records created during Ann Lee's life exist, only accounts by early Shakers thirty years after her death.  According to Shaker records, Lee was born in 1736 in Manchester, England; baptized in 1742, and married in 1762. She had four children, 3 dying in infancy and a daughter at age 6 in 1766. Approximately in  1758 she joined a religious group known as the 'Shaking Quakers,'  led by James and Jane Wardley. "The group condemned the existing churches for corruption, proclaimed the imminent Second Coming of Christ, and shared in ecstatic worship practices." (cited Tisa J. Wenger)​

​

In 1770, Lee was imprisoned for 30 days in Manchester and while in prison had a premonition that celibacy was the key to purity and would become the Shakers' cornerstone. In 1774, Lee had another premonition that she was to establish the sect in America. [cited BBC]​

"Along with celibacy and pacifism, Lee preached that all individuals could experience God directly, explains Theresa Frey-Alexander, education coordinator at the Shaker Heritage Society. This opportunity for spiritual experience was understood to be available to all members, regardless of gender or race." [cited Elizabeth Yuko]

After moving to New England with her brother, 6 followers, and husband (who soon left her for another woman after arriving); she soon began to convert people to her beliefs from nearby settlements. Ann soon came to be known as 'Mother Ann' and believed to have "The Shaker movement grew and began to spread throughout New England. Mother Ann, as she came to be known, was believed to have ushered in the millennium, and embody the feminine half of God's which for the Shakers asserted that as Christ had embodied the masculine half of God’s dual nature, so she embodied the feminine half. This Endtime message was seemingly validated by the unusual and disturbing “Dark Day” of May 19, 1780 (caused by Canadian wildfires and fog), which garnered more converts." [cited Britannica]

In 1780 Lee and two of her followers toured for three years building communities and converting new followers, this resulted in establishing eight communities across 10 states. Lee died one year after the tour in 1784 at the age of 48. 

Following her death her followers organized the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, also known as the Millennial Church and, most commonly, as the Shakers. At its hiehgt it had over 6,000 members and 18 villages in 8 states. As of 2025 there is one Shaker village with 3 members.

​