# The Shakers · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

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The Cult Dossier · No. 025 · Christian-Derived
The Shakers
United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing
1747 – present (2 members) · Manchester, England; then New York and New England, USA
III. THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY
Fully religious — millenarian Christian communal sect
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 1747 The Wardley Society, a Quaker offshoot, forms in Manchester; Ann Lee joins in 1758.
- 1770 Ann Lee's key vision in prison; recognised as leader.
- 19 May 1774 Sails for America with eight followers.
- 1780s Growth during the New Light revivals; Ann Lee dies 8 September 1784 after a violent mob beating.
- 1826 Peak: 18 communities, roughly 4,000–6,000 members.
- 1837–1850 The Era of Manifestations — mass spirit possession, trance drawings, messages from Mother Ann.
- 2017 Sister Frances Carr dies of cancer aged 89, leaving TWO members at Sabbathday Lake, Maine — BROTHER ARNOLD HADD, who entered nearly half a century ago, and SISTER JUNE CARPENTER, born 1938, who converted in 1987 at the age of 49.
- AUGUST 2025 FOR THE FIRST TIME IN DECADES, THE COMMUNITY GREW. SISTER APRIL BAXTER, AGED 59, JOINED — raising the number of Shakers in the United States to THREE, alongside Sister June Carpenter (87) and Brother Arnold Hadd (68). The requirements remain exacting: a candidate must be single, in good physical and mental health, free of debt and without dependents, and must live at the village FIVE YEARS before being considered for full membership. After nearly a century of uninterrupted decline, the last Shaker village added a member.
### Its people
### Ann Lee
Mother Ann; Ann the Word
Founder, the Shakers · 29 February 1736 – 8 September 1784 · active 1770–1784
Before the law. Repeatedly imprisoned in England and America for blasphemy, sabbath-breaking and, during the Revolution, suspected treason.
Where things stand. Deceased 1784. Two Shakers remain at Sabbathday Lake, Maine.
- 1758 Joins the Wardley Society in Manchester.
- 1770 Imprisoned; receives the founding vision.
- 19 May 1774 Sails for America.
- 1781–1783 Missionary tour of New England; repeatedly assaulted by mobs.
- 4 September 1783 Returns to New York from the New England mission in a weakened condition, as does her brother William.
- 8 SEPTEMBER 1784 Dies at Watervliet, New York, aged 48. Death was attributed to the cumulative strain and violence of the mission rather than to any single beating. WHEN HER REMAINS WERE REPORTEDLY REINTERRED IN THE 1820s, A FRACTURED SKULL WAS FOUND.
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