The Public Universal FriendOriginal spelling: the Publick Universal Friend. Shortened forms: the Universal Friend, the Friend, or P.U.F. References to the Friend tend to avoid any pronouns altogether, instead using "the Friend". (born Jemima Wilkinson; November 29, 1752 – July 1, 1819), also known by the Haudenosaunee name Shinnewawna gis tau ge, was an American preacher born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, to Quaker parents. After suffering a severe illness in 1776, the Friend claimed to have died and been reanimated as a genderless evangelist named the Public Universal Friend, and afterward shunned both birth name and all pronouns. In androgynous clothes, the Friend preached throughout the northeastern United States, attracting many followers who became the Society of Universal Friends.Peg A. Lamphier, Rosanne Welch, Women in American History (2017, ), p. 331.
The Friend's theology was broadly similar to that of most Quakers. The Friend stressed free will, opposed slavery, and supported sexual abstinence. The most committed members of the Society of Universal Friends were a group of unmarried women who took leading roles in their households and community. In the 1790s, members of the Society acquired land in Western New York where they formed the town of Jerusalem near Penn Yan, New York. The Society of Universal Friends ceased to exist by the 1860s. Some writers have portrayed the Friend as a woman, and either a manipulative fraudster or a pioneer for women's rights, while others, such as scholar Scott Larson, have viewed the Friend as transgender or non-binary and a figure in trans history.
Early life Jemima Wilkinson, who would later become the Public Universal Friend, was born on November 29, 1752, in Cumberland, Rhode Island, as the eighth child of Amy (or Amey, née Whipple) and Jeremiah Wilkinson,Some older texts use the spelling Jemimah Wilkinson, see e.g. those quoted by Moyer, p. 101 and pp. 106–108 or Wisbey, p. 93. becoming the fourth generation of the family to live in America. Assigned female at birth, the child was named after Jemima, one of the biblical Job's daughters. Wilkinson's great-grandfather, Lawrence Wilkinson, was an officer in the army of Charles I who had emigrated from England around 1650New York Folklore Quarterly (1955), vol. 11, p. 22 and was active in colonial government. Jeremiah Wilkinson was a cousin of Stephen Hopkins, the colony's longtime governor and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Jeremiah attended traditional worship with the Society of Friends (the Quakers) at the Smithfield Meeting House. Early biographer David Hudson says that Amy was also a member of the Society for many years, while later biographer Herbert Wisbey finds no evidence of that, but quotes Moses Brown as saying the child was "born such" because of Jeremiah's affiliation. Amy died when Wilkinson was 12 or 13 in 1764, shortly after giving birth to a twelfth child.
Wilkinson had fine black hair and dark eyes, and from an early age was strong and athletic, becoming an adept equestrian as a child, remaining so in adulthood, and liking spirited horses and ensuring that animals received good care.The New-England Galaxy (1961), vol. 3, p. 5; York State Tradition (1968), vol. 22, p. 18. An avid reader, Wilkinson could quote long passages of the Bible and prominent Quaker texts from memory. Little else is reliably known about Wilkinson's childhood; some early accounts such as Hudson's describe Wilkinson as being fond of fine clothes and averse to labor, but there is no contemporaneous evidence of this and Wisbey considers it doubtful. Biographer Paul Moyer says it may have been invented to fit a then-common narrative that people who experienced dramatic religious awakenings were formerly profligate sinners.
In the mid-1770s, Wilkinson began attending meetings in Cumberland with New Light Baptists who had formed as part of the Great Awakening and emphasized individual enlightenment, and stopped attending meetings of the Society of Friends being disciplined for that in February 1776 and disowned by the Smithfield Meeting in August.Lend a Hand (1893), volume 10, § Jemima Wilkinson, p. 127.The New-England Galaxy (1961), vol. 3, p. 7 Wilkinson's sister Patience was dismissed at the same time for having an illegitimate child; brothers Stephen and Jeptha had been dismissed by the pacifistic Society in May 1776 for training for military service. Amid these family disturbances and the broader ones of the American Revolutionary War, dissatisfied with the New Light Baptists and shunned by mainstream Quakers, Wilkinson faced much stress in 1776.
Becoming the Public Universal Friend
In October 1776, Wilkinson contracted an epidemic disease, most likely typhus, and was bedridden and near death with a high fever. The future preacher's family summoned a doctor from Attleboro, six miles away, and neighbors kept up a death-watch at night. The fever broke after several days. The Friend later reported that Wilkinson had died, receiving revelations from God through two archangels who proclaimed there was "Room, Room, Room, in the many Mansions of eternal glory for Thee and for everyone".Wisbey (p. 12) notes that a brother recalled the Friend saying "There is Room Enough" at the time of the illness. Accounts by the doctor and other witnesses state that the illness was real, but none of them say that Wilkinson died. The Friend further said that Wilkinson's soul had ascended to heaven and the body had been reanimated with a new spirit charged by God with preaching his word, that of the "Publick Universal Friend",Douglas L. Winiarski, Darkness Falls on the Land of Light (2017, ), p. 430.James L. Roark, Michael P. Johnson, Patricia Cline Cohen, The American Promise, Combined Volume: A History of the United States (2012, ) p. 307. describing that name in the words of as "a new name which the mouth of the Lord hath named". The name referenced the designation the Society of Friends used for members who traveled from community to community to preach, "Public Friends".
From that time on, the Friend refused to answer to the name "Jemima Wilkinson",Winiarski, p. 430; and Susan Juster, Lisa MacFarlane, A Mighty Baptism: Race, Gender, and the Creation of American Protestantism (1996, ), p. 27, and p. 28. ignoring or chastising those who insisted on using it. Hudson says that when visitors asked if it was the name of the person they were addressing, the Friend simply quoted ("thou sayest it"). Identifying as neither male nor female, the Friend asked not to be referred to with gendered pronouns. Followers respected these wishes; they referred only to "the Public Universal Friend" or short forms such as "the Friend" or "P.U.F.", and many avoided gender-specific pronouns even in private diaries,Juster & MacFarlane, A Mighty Baptism, pp. 27–28 while others used he. When someone asked if the Friend was male or female, the preacher replied "I am that I am", saying the same thing to a man who criticized the Friend's manner of dress (adding, in the latter case, "there is nothing indecent or improper in my dress or appearance; I am not accountable to mortals").Susan Juster, Doomsayers: Anglo-American Prophecy in the Age of Revolution (2010, , p. 228Adam Jortner, Blood from the Sky: Miracles and Politics in the Early American Republic (2017), p. 192
The Friend dressed in a manner perceived to be either androgynous or masculine, in long, loose clerical robes which were most often black,Juster & MacFarlane, A Mighty Baptism, pp. 27–28; Roark et al., p. 307. and wore a white or purple kerchief or cravat around the neck like men of the time. The preacher did not wear a hair-cap indoors, like women of the era, and outdoors wore broad-brimmed, low-crowned beaver hats of a style worn by Quaker men. Accounts of the Friend's "feminine-masculine tone of voice" varied; some hearers described it as "clear and harmonious", or said the preacher spoke "with ease and facility", "clearly, though without elegance". Others described it as "grum and shrill", or like a "kind of croak, unearthly and sepulchral". The Friend was said to move easily, freely, and modestly, and was described by Ezra Stiles as "decent & graceful & grave".The New-England Galaxy (1961), vol. 3, p. 5.
Beliefs, preaching, and the Society of Universal Friends
The Friend began to travel and preach throughout Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania accompanied by brother Stephen and sisters Deborah, Elizabeth, Marcy, and Patience, all of whom were disowned by the Society of Friends. Early on, the Public Universal Friend preached that people needed to repent of their sins and be saved before an imminent Day of Judgment. According to Abner Brownell, the preacher predicted that the fulfillment of some prophecies of Revelation would begin around April 1780, 42 months after the Universal Friend began preaching, and interpreted New England's Dark Day in May 1780 as fulfillment of that prediction. According to a Philadelphia newspaper, later followers Sarah Richards (also known as Sarah Friend) and James Parker believed themselves to be the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation and accordingly wore sackcloth for a time.
The Friend did not bring a Bible to worship meetings, which were initially held outdoors or in borrowed meeting houses,Rappleye, p. 187. but preached long sections of the scriptures from memory. The meetings attracted large audiences, including some who formed a congregation of "Universal Friends", making the Friend the first native-born American citizen to found a religious community.June Melby Benowitz, Encyclopedia of American Women and Religion, 2nd Edition (2017, ), p. 638: "the first native-born American to found a religious community" These followers included roughly equal numbers of women and men who were predominantly under 40. Most were from Quaker backgrounds, though mainstream Quakers discouraged and disciplined members for attending meetings with the Friend. Indeed, the Society of Friends had disowned the Friend, disapproving of what William Savery considered "pride and ambition to distinguish [them]self from the rest of mankind". Free Quakers, disowned by the main Society of Friends for participating in the American War of Independence, were particularly sympathetic and opened meeting houses to the Universal Friends, appreciating that many of them had also sympathized with the Patriot cause, including members of the Friend's family.
Popular newspapers and pamphlets covered the Friend's sermons in detail by the mid-1780s, with several Philadelphia newspapers being particularly critical; they fomented enough opposition that noisy crowds gathered outside each place the preacher stayed or spoke in 1788. Most papers focused more on the preacher's ambiguous gender than on theology,Bronski, p. 51 which was broadly similar to the teachings of most Quakers; one person who heard the Friend in 1788 said "from common report I expected to hear something out of the way in doctrine, which is not the case, in fact [I] heard nothing but what is common among preachers" in mainstream Quaker churches. The Friend's theology was so similar to that of the mainstream Quakers' that one of two published works associated with the preacher was a plagiarism of Isaac Penington's Works because, according to Abner Brownell, the Friend felt that the sentiments would have more resonance if republished in the name of the Universal Friend. The Universal Friends also used language similar to that of the Society of Friends, using thee and thou instead of the more formal singular you.