Lee, Ann

(c. 1736–84)

   Sect Founder.

   Lee lived near Manchester, England. After an unfortunate marriage and losing four children, she became involved in a local dissenting group and became its leader. The principles of the society (known as the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing) included confession, celibacy, pacifism and the common ownership of property. As Mother Ann, Lee believed she was a manifestation of the female principle of Christ (Jesus being the male principle) and that therefore she was a fulfilment of the promise of a Second Coming. Worship in the sect involved dancing, leaping, singing, barking and shaking – hence the group came to be known as the Shakers. As a result of persecution, Lee and seven followers emigrated to America in 1774 where the society rapidly increased in numbers. In 1787, three years after Lee’s death, the first settlement was established in New Lebanon, New York and later other settlements were founded in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. Numbers declined from the middle of the nineteenth century and today very few remain. None the less the Shakers are well known and admired for their elegant and economical furniture design, which is much reproduced.

   E.D. Andrews, The People Called Shakers, 2nd edn (1963);

   M.F. Melcher, The Shaker Adventure (1941);

   R.E. Whitson (ed.), The Shakers: Two Centuries of Spiritual Reflection (1983).