SYMHC Classics: Public Universal Friend

Summary

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Podcast Summary: SYMHC Classics: Public Universal Friend

Podcast: Stuff You Missed in History Class
Hosts: Tracy V. Wilson & Holly Frey
Date: November 29, 2025 (original episode: June 8, 2020)
Main Theme:
An in-depth exploration of the life, identity, and religious movement built around the Public Universal Friend, a genderless spiritual figure born Jemima Wilkinson, who rose to prominence in post-Revolutionary War America.

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Overview

This episode offers a nuanced historical examination of the Public Universal Friend (PUF), a religious leader who, after a near-fatal illness in 1776, began living as a genderless prophet and rejected their birth name (Jemima Wilkinson). The hosts explore the complex issues of identity, gender, spirituality, and community-building, their intersection with early American history, and the Friend’s place in both religious and LGBTQ history.

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Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Approach to Names and Pronouns

Timestamps: 02:37–04:19

• Respecting Historical Context:
  The hosts explain the deliberate approach to pronouns and names, emphasizing respect for the Friend’s self-identification and the challenges this presents for historians:

  "The Friend didn't answer to the name of Jemima Wilkinson, and we won't use that name when we're talking about the Friend. But Jemima was still an important part of this story, who we can't simply omit." (Tracy, 03:59)

• Subjective Challenges:
  Most references struggle to accurately depict the Friend's self-identification, with sources inconsistently using "he," "she," or modern non-gendered pronouns.

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2. Early Life as Jemima Wilkinson

Timestamps: 04:19–08:54

• Born November 29, 1752, in Cumberland, Rhode Island, to a prominent Quaker family.
• Grew up during a period of religious division and political tension preceding the American Revolution.
• Noted for intelligence, a passion for reading, and a deep self-taught knowledge of Quaker theology.

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3. Spiritual Crisis and Transformation

Timestamps: 08:54–10:40

• Disowned from the Society of Friends (Quakers) in August 1776 after persistently challenging societal and religious norms.
• Became gravely ill on October 4, 1776, with what was possibly typhus (“Columbus Fever”).
• Following recovery, announced that Jemima Wilkinson had died and their body was now inhabited by a "genderless religious and spiritual figure" sent by God.

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4. The Emergence of the Public Universal Friend

Timestamps: 14:28–17:45

• Vision & Calling:
  • “The heavens were opened and she saw two archangels descending... bringing a sealed pardon from the living God.” (Tracy quotes source materials, 14:28)
  • The Friend claimed a divine mission to warn the world and invite “the lost sheep of the house of Israel to come home.” (Holly, 15:04)
• New Identity & Appearance:
  • Refused all gendered pronouns; followers similarly avoided gendered references even in private writings.
  • Adopted clothing and mannerisms blending masculine, feminine, and clerical elements.
  • Outsiders variously described the Friend’s clothing, voice, and appearance as “neither masculine or feminine” or combining both.

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5. Teachings and Ministry

Timestamps: 17:45–25:07

• Blended Quaker, New Light Baptist, and mystical teachings.
• Stressed:
  • Equality among people (including gender equality)
  • Pacifism and abolitionism.
  • Spiritual rather than institutional authority.
  • Encouragement (not requirement) of celibacy.
  • Warnings of an imminent apocalypse (predicted: April 1, 1780).
• The Friend quickly attracted a devoted following, including prominent figures like Judge William Potter.

"The Friend preached on ideas of equality among all people, as well as being pacifist and abolitionist, and believed that women should obey God rather than men." (Holly, 18:47)

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6. Growth and Challenges of the Society of Universal Friends

Timestamps: 25:07–26:45

• The Friend’s ministry expanded regionally, especially after wealthy supporter Judge William Potter donated resources and his home.

• Developed structured meeting houses and published religious advice, including guidance for worship.

• Internal Schisms & External Criticism:

  • Departures and exposés by disgruntled followers (notably Abner Brownell) led to suspicion and public derision, especially concerning the Friend’s gender and celibacy teachings.
  • Persistent rumors, accusations of spying, and even plagiarism scandals (accusations of plagiarizing Quaker writers).

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7. Move to Western New York and Efforts at Communal Living

Timestamps: 30:46–36:59

• The Society sought refuge on the “frontier” in what is now western New York in the Finger Lakes region, though this area had recently been seized from the Seneca Nation.
• Attempted true collective landholding, though legal realities forced them into an apportioned ownership model.
• By 1790, they formed the largest white settlement in western New York, with households often headed by women.

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8. Community Conflicts, Legal Battles, and Legacy

Timestamps: 36:59–41:17

• Persistent internal conflict over land ownership, especially after members like Judge Potter used legal technicalities to profit from communal lands.
• Prolonged litigation and family betrayals surrounding the wills of close followers (notably Sarah Richards/Rachel Mallon).
• 1799–1800: Blasphemy charges brought (and ultimately dropped) as part of wider efforts to discredit the Friend.
• After the Friend’s death (July 1, 1819), lawsuits and false, libelous biographies (notably by David Hudson) further distorted the public memory of their life.

"Unfortunately, the untruths in Hudson's book were then repeated in other sources over the years, and over time, the most outlandish rumors and accusations became part of the lore surrounding the Friend." (Tracy, 40:20)

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9. Final Years, Death, and Historical Significance

Timestamps: 38:32–41:17

• The Friend retreated from public ministry after legal troubles in the late 1790s, dying in 1819.
• Faithful to the end in supporting society’s poor, as dictated in the will.
• Despite decades of scandal and myth, the universal Friends’ community persisted into the mid-19th century.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Gender & Identity:

  "The Friend sincerely believed that Jemima Wilkinson was a different living person who had died, and that God had chosen to send a genderless, celestial being to dwell in Jemima's resurrected body..." (Tracy, 03:37)

• On Reputation:

  "Detractors were inordinately focused on what kind of undergarments the Friend wore, what their voice sounded like, and whether there was something sexually licentious going on within the Society of Universal Friends, which, as we said earlier, encouraged celibacy." (Tracy, 26:09)

• On Land Conflicts:

  "Judge William Potter, for example, who we talked about earlier, made about $40,000 profit selling land that other people were actually living on." (Tracy, 35:15)

• On Historical Mythmaking:

  "[Hudson's] book should be considered properly not as a biography of Jemima Wilkinson, but as part of the campaign to get her land by discrediting her aims and aspersing her followers." (Tracy quoting Herbert Whisby, 40:20)

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Important Timestamps for Key Segments

• Handling Pronouns & Naming: 02:37–04:19
• Religious Transformation & Divine Calling: 08:54–10:40, 14:28–15:34
• Public Universal Friend’s Appearance & Identity: 15:34–17:45
• Society's Teachings & Growth: 18:47–24:33
• Move to New York & Land Issues: 30:46–35:53
• Legal Conflicts & Death: 37:47–39:54

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Tone and Style

At once compassionate, meticulous, and scholarly, Tracy and Holly approach the Friend’s complex life with both respect for historical accuracy and sensitivity to contemporary understanding of gender and religious experience. The episode is careful not to project current perspectives onto the past, while still drawing meaningful connections to modern conversations about identity and belonging.

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Conclusion

This episode offers an intricate portrait of a unique American religious leader and community that has echoed through both spiritual and LGBTQ histories. Through careful research and thoughtful narration, the hosts illuminate the complexity of the Friend’s life, teachings, and enduring legacy—and demonstrate how quickly myth and misrepresentation can overtake historical fact.

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Transcript

[Tracy B. Wilson]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Holly Fry]

Guaranteed Human Listen to your elders, honey.

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[Kal Penn]

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[Tracy B. Wilson]

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Valid through December 3, 2025. Selection varies by location. Select locations only while supplies last. See Lowes.com for more details. Happy Saturday. Jemima Wilkinson was born on November 29, 1752 or 273 years ago today, on the day this podcast is publishing. She became seriously ill in October of 1776 and after recovering was known as a genderless religious and spiritual figure called the Public Universal Friend.

[Holly Fry]

Our episode about all this originally came.

[Silver Linings with the Old Gays Host]

Out on June 8, 2020.

[Holly Fry]

Enjoy. Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartradio.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Today we are going to talk about a religious figure. That's the Public Universal Friend who described himself as a genderless spirit sent by God to inhabit the resurrected body of a woman named Jemima Wilkinson, so the Friend has a clear place in the scope of LGBTQ or queer history. But the details of their story also mean that we need to handle their name and pronouns a little differently than we have done in other episodes of the show. We've generally tried to take our cues on names and pronouns from our subjects themselves, so sticking as much as we can to what they used in their own lives. And when we've talked about people who have experienced something that we might describe as a gender transition, even if the idea of transitioning had not really evolved yet, we've stuck to their post transition name and pronouns. The basic idea is that's who they were the whole time, even if that wasn't evident to other people, and even if the subject's own understanding of their gender evolved over time. That doesn't exactly work for the public universal Friend, though. The Friends sincerely believed that Jemima Wilkinson was a different living person who had died, and that God had chosen to send a genderless sense celestial being to dwell in Jemima's resurrected body, and that death and resurrection were centrally important to the Friend's religious identity and to the religious community they established. So in this case, it doesn't feel right to frame this episode with just one name instead of pronouns, because that wasn't really how the Friend approached their own experience. The Friend didn't answer to the name of Jemima Wilkinson, and we won't use that name when we're talking about the Friend. But Jemima was still an important part of this story, who we can't simply omit.

[Holly Fry]

So to tell Jemima's story, Jemima Wilkinson was born on November 29, 1752, and named after one of the daughters of Job. She was born in Cumberland, Rhode island, in an area that had been part of a dispute between Rhode island and Massachusetts. At one point it was considered part of the Massachusetts town of Attleborough. Jemima was the eighth child of Jeremiah and Amy Whipple Wilkinson, and the Wilkinsons had been living in that area for four generations.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

The Wilkinsons were related to several prominent Rhode island families, including Stephen Hopkins, who was governor of Rhode Island Colony and later one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Their farm was a successful one. Its main cash crop was cherries, and the family was so well known for these cherries that Jemima's father was nicknamed Cherry Wilkinson.

[Holly Fry]

Jemima had four more siblings that were born after she was and her mother died shortly after giving birth to the last of those children. Jemima was 11 or 12, and her mother had at that point given birth to 12 children over the span of 25 years.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Jeremiah never remarried after his wife's death, and Jemima and her older sisters took part in raising their younger siblings. The details of her childhood and youth aren't that well documented. It's likely that she did physical labor on the farm, and we do know she became quite skilled at riding a horse. She was also described as an attractive young woman and a voracious reader with a sharp memory. She had very little formal education, but through self study she developed a deep knowledge of Quaker theology, particularly through the writings of figures like George Fox and William Penn.

[Holly Fry]

We also know that several members of the Wilkinson family had disagreement with the Smithfield Friends Meeting that led to their being disowned. Jemima grew up as tensions were escalating between Britain and its North American colonies. The colony of Rhode island declared its independence two months before the rest of the colonies did on July 4, 1776. This situation put many Quakers patriotism at odds with their religious pacifism. Jemima's brothers Benjamin, Stefan and Jephthah were disowned from the Smithfield meetings because they, quote, frequented trainings for military service and endeavor to justify the same. Jemima's sister Patience became pregnant in 1776 but was not married and she was disowned for this.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Jemima ran afoul of the Meeting Standards as well. It's believed that she attended a revival meeting held by George Whitefield, also sometimes called George Whitfield, during his last tour of New England in 1770, although her attendance isn't specifically documented at any of them. Sometime after that she started attending meetings of the New Light Baptists.

[Holly Fry]

Both the New Lights and the Quakers stressed individual enlightenment and conscience as part of their teachings. But the Quakers stressed the idea of discussion and consensus when it came to matters of theology and determining the scope of God's will. The New Lights, on the other hand, believed that everyone had equal access to God at any time. There was no need to discuss your conversion experience or your beliefs with anyone else or get their approval for them to be real and valid.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

In addition to attending these New Light meetings, it appears that Jemima was talking about the New Light teachings during her Quaker meetings. She was also refusing to use Quaker plain speech which substituted the and thine in place of you and yours.

[Holly Fry]

The reasoning for this was that when the Religious Society of Friends was being established, people used the and thine for close relations, but you and yours in a more formal context, including addressing royalty, this is very Similar to the way that tu versus vous are used in French today. The Quakers believed in the equality of all people and used thee and thine for everyone, regardless of rank, and continued speaking this way even as you became more common outside of Quaker communities as the pronoun to use for everyone. Ironically, today the and thine sound very formal, but at the time they were thought of as the casual option.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

By the summer of 1776, the Smithfield friends had instructed Jemima to start stop speaking out of turn. That may have also involved her speaking out about the disownment of her four siblings. She'd also been instructed to stop going to the New Light Baptist Meetings. Jemima refused to do any of that. And then, like her siblings before her, she was disowned from the meeting in August of 1776.

[Holly Fry]

There are two different accounts of what happened next. One is that Jemima threw herself into religious work, including ministering to and caring for the sick. The other is that she withdrew into her room and became increasingly isolated and morose.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Either way, on October 4, 1776, she became seriously ill. An account that was tucked into the public Universal Friends Bible calls this illness Columbus Fever, described as a typhus outbreak that came from the Navy ship Columbus that docked in Providence, Rhode island in 1776. The Columbus definitely did dock in Providence, but it's less clear whether there was a typhus outbreak that spread bread from the ship.

[Holly Fry]

This same account reads, quote, on the fourth day of the tenth month, on the seventh day of the week at night, a certain young woman known by the name of Jemima Wilkinson was seized with this mortal disease. And on the second day of her illness was rendered almost incapable of helping herself. And the fever continued to increase until the fifth day of the week. About midnight, she appeared to meet the shock of death.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

On October 10th, Jemima's family called for a doctor. This was Dr. Mann from neighboring Albro, Massachusetts. Dr. Mann later wrote this account quote, her case was like one other. He knew of that the fever being translated to the head. She rose with different ideas that what she had when the fever was general. And she conceived the idea that she had been dead and was raised up for extraordinary purposes and got well fast, but that she had been dead. None of her friends or attendants had any apprehension or thought of her having been dead. But she was for some time after considered by her friends not to be in her right mind.

[Holly Fry]

The Friends account of what happened is quite different from Dr. Mann's and we are going to get into that after we first pause for a sponsor break. Listen to your elders, honey.

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[Ed Helms]

Hey everyone, Ed Helms here and hi.

[Kal Penn]

I'm Kal Penn and we're the hosts of Irsay, the Audible and I Heart Audiobook Club.

[Ed Helms]

This week on the podcast I am sitting down with Jenny Garth host of the iHeart podcast, I choose me to discuss the new Audible adaptation of the timeless Jane Austen classic Pride and Pride Prejudice. This is not a trick question. There's no wrong answer. What role would I play?

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[Tracy B. Wilson]

I can see you as Mr. Darcy.

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[Tracy B. Wilson]

As Holly said before the break, the Public Universal Friends account of what happened in October of 1776 is quite different from the one by Dr. Mann that we read before the break. This account read in part the heavens were opened and she saw two archangels descending from the east with golden crowns upon their heads, clothed in long white robes down to the feet, bringing a sealed pardon from the living God and putting their trumpets to their mouth proclaimed, saying, room, room, room in the many mansions of eternal glory for thee and for everyone.

[Holly Fry]

Later in the same account, the Friend continued, quote, the Spirit of life from God had descended to earth to warn a lost and guilty, perishing dying world to flee from the wrath which is to come, and to give an invitation to the lost sheep of the house of Israel to come home, and was waiting to assume the body which God had prepared for the Spirit to dwell in. Some accounts have the word gossiping in place of the word perishing in that passage, possibly because of unclear handwriting.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

From this point, the Friend stopped answering to the name Jemima Wilkinson and became known as the Public Universal Friend, as well as the All Friend and the Comforter and a variety of other monikers. To followers, they were often just the Friend or the puf. The name Public Universal Friend also had some overlap with Quaker practices. Public Friends were the Quakers who were authorized to travel from place to place and preach. The Friends stopped recognizing the Wilkinson family as relatives. Although several of the Wilkinsons were among the Friends first adherents.

[Holly Fry]

Those adherents generally avoided using gendered pronouns or any pronouns at all when talking about the Friend. This was true even in people's personal diaries or other private documents. Outside of those adherents, though, people were all over the place in terms of what pronouns and names that they used to talk about the Friend, and this continues until today. Most biographies and journal articles use he or him or she and her. Tracy was telling me before we even started that a lot of the pieces she used as reference made this all very, very confusing.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Yeah, yeah. I think there was One article of everything that I read that used like a non gendered pronoun to talk about the Friend and the rest of them. A lot of them used she and one entire book used he, which I found jarring. The Friend also started dressing in a way that combined masculine, feminine and clerical apparel. Congregationalist Ezra Stiles described one outfit this way, quote light cloth cloak with a cape like a man's purple gown, long sleeves to wristbands, man's shirt down to the hands with neckband, purple handkerchief or neckcloth tied around the neck like a man's no cap hair combed, turned over and not long wears a watchman's hat. In another account, Quaker missionary William Savory described the Friend wearing a calico surplice, which is a blousy liturgical garment. Others described the Friend's appearance as being similar to depictions of Jesus Christ.

[Holly Fry]

The Friend's voice was also described as neither masculine or feminine, or sometimes as both masculine and feminine, although some detractors described the voice as grum, which means morose, deep or harsh, but also has connotations of sounding almost demonic.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

The friend's first public sermon was delivered on October 13, 1776. So just three days after that doctor visit, they attended services at the Elder Miller Baptist Meeting House and then afterwards spoke from under a tree outside the building. The Friend continued to preach from the Wilkinson home and in the area around Cumberland, Rhode island, over the fall and winter of 1776 into 1777, and then set off as an itinerant minister in the early months of 1777. That year Jeremiah Wilkinson was disowned from the Smithfield Quakers, and the three Wilkinson daughters, who had not already been disowned, were all expelled in 1779, all of that for following the friend's teachings.

[Holly Fry]

The teachings were a fusion of Quaker and New Light Baptist ideas, along with some mysticism. Followers wrote about their prophetic dreams and their visions, and while the Friend was still in Rhode island, faith healing was also part of their ministry, although that seemed to have disappeared after they moved on to other areas in the Northeast. The Friend preached on ideas of equality among all people, as well as being pacifist and abolitionist, and believed that women should obey God rather than men. The Friend also encouraged but did not require celibacy. These teachings also warned of a coming Apocalypse to begin on April 1, 1780.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

In 1778, the friend felt called to take their preaching to England and made preparations to travel there, something that required a lot of work because the Revolutionary War was still going on. Although the Friend did get permission from local authorities to make this trip and started making arrangements for passage. Trip didn't actually wind up happening.

[Holly Fry]

One possible reason is that the Friend met and converted Judge William Potter. Potter was 57 at the time and was one of several prominent and wealthy people among the Friend's followers. Potter's father had been one of the wealthiest planters in Narragansett, Rhode Island. Potter had inherited his father's estate and had become one of the most prominent men in that part of the colony. Potter had been an Anglican, but he and his wife Penelope left the church and to follow the public Universal Friend.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

The Potters became a major source of the Friend's financial support. The Judge added a 14 room extension onto his mansion for the Friend and their attendants to live in, and he housed the headquarters of the Friends community for six years. He also freed his enslaved workforce because of the Friends abolitionist teaching. Toward the end of the 1770s, Potter either lost or resigned from his position as a judge as well as from other offices he had been holding. Either he stepped away from them all to focus on his work with the Friend, or he was voted out or lost his appointments because of these religious views that the Friend was teaching.

[Holly Fry]

From 1778 to 1787, the friend was primarily based in Rhode island, although they traveled back and forth to other parts of New England as well as farther south into New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The Friend established meeting houses in other cities and towns, including New Milford, Connecticut and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. New by the early 1780s, the friends following had become known as the Society of Universal Friends.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

The friends spent 14 years as an itinerant minister, traveling from place to place, usually with between 12 and 20 followers. The friend preached in exchange for shelter, also giving advice on things like domestic matters and farming, as well as mediating disputes. They had visited and cared for POWs and injured soldiers on both sides of the Revolutionary War. The Friend had also actively recruited new followers, including attending the funerals of people of other faiths who had died, both to offer comfort to the bereaved and to be available for people who might be interested in their teachings but kind of reluctant to seek them out otherwise.

[Holly Fry]

By 1783, though, the friend was being criticized in print beyond just articles that viewed their teachings as heretical or their gender as suspicious. That year, former adherent Abner Brownell published Enthusiastical Errors Transpired and Detected. It didn't specifically name the Friend, but it was clearly meant to be an expose of the Friend's ministry. It may have been inspired by the writing titled A Brief Account of a religious scheme taught and propagated by a number of Europeans who lately lived in a place called Niskiuna in the State of New York, but now residing in Harvard Commonwealth of Massachusetts, commonly called Shaking Quakers. Again, we always love a very long and convoluted title. This particular piece of writing was an expose that was written by former Shaker Valentin Rathbun.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Brownell seems to have been motivated to write this work after the Friend excommunicated him for publishing his own book of prophecies without their permission. Among Brownell's accusations was that the Friend maintained a spy network to pass them information about other people's sins in order to bring those transgressions up in front of the congregation during services. Brownell also said that the Friend had instructed him to plagiarize previous works by Isaac Pennington and William Sewell and published them as a book called Some Considerations Propounded to the Several Sorts and Sects of professor of this Age. This book had come out in 1779 under the name A Universal Friend to All Mankind. It was definitely straight up plagiarized.

[Holly Fry]

In September of 1783, two members of the Society drafted a Declaration of Faith, in part to resolve ongoing questions about who the Friend actually was. Some of the Friend's adherents described the Friend as a messiah or as a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, something that the Friend themselves never claimed but also didn't didn't really deny. This declaration described the Friend as, quote, the counsel of the Lord spoken by the influence of the Holy Spirit through the tabernacle of the universal friend.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

In 1784, the universal friend's advice to those of the same religious society, recommended to be read in their public meetings for divine worship, was published. The Friend had established meeting houses in several communities at this point, and this book contained instructions on the structure of worship at those meeting houses, as well as lots of Bible verses and other quotations.

[Holly Fry]

According to the Universal Friends advice, meetings were to begin punctually at 10 in the morning, and people who couldn't attend meetings were advised to sit down in their homes at the scheduled time to, quote, wait for and upon the Lord. Members were to live peaceably with all men as much as possible, or to take up your daily cross against all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to speak in meetings only when moved to do so by the Holy Spirit. The Friend's advice also included several references to the Golden Rule and the admonition to quote, live as you would be willing to die.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

In 1785, the friend met Sarah Richards after Richard's husband died. The following year, she joined the Society of Universal Friends, bringing her infant daughter Eliza with her. Richards became one of the most prominent people in the Society and the closest person to the public Universal Friend, essentially being second in the Society's hierarchy and becoming known as Sarah Friend.

[Holly Fry]

A couple of years later, though, the Society started to experience some troubles. On January 4, 1787, several members of the Society were staying at the home of David Wagner in Philadelphia. There was some kind of argument between two of the Friends adherents, Sarah Wilson and Abigail Dayton. Wilson later accused Dayton of trying to strangle her as she slept, something that other people in the house wrote off as a nightmare. But Wilson published an account of this whole incident that later morphed into the Friend having tried to strangle her, even though the Friend was in Rhode island at the time this happened.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

By the late 1780s, the friend was also facing increasing criticism and derision in New England. A lot of it was connected to the Friend's genderlessness and androgynous physical appearance. Detractors were inordinately focused on what kind of undergarments the Friend wore, what their voice sounded like, and whether there was something sexually licentious going on within the Society of Universal Friends, which, as we said earlier, encouraged celibacy. When the Friend established a meeting house in Philadelphia, it was almost immediately vandalized, which was the first time the Society of Universal Friends was the target of mob violence.

[Holly Fry]

Criticism and persecution were among the factors that led the Friend to establish a community in Western New York. The Friend may have also been inspired by a FR cloister in Pennsylvania or New York Shaker communities, and we'll talk more about that after we pause for another sponsor break. Listen to your elders, honey.

[Silver Linings with the Old Gays Host]

You might know them from their viral videos. But now the old Gays pull back the curtain on their podcast Silver Linings.

[Holly Fry]

With the Old Gays, brought to you.

[Silver Linings with the Old Gays Host]

In partnership with I Hearts, Ruby Studio and Veeve Healthcare. For a very special bonus episode, hosts Robert, Mick, Bill, and Jahsay talk about how Pride has evolved over the years and their favorite memories, all in celebration of Palm Springs Pride. Because Pride should be celebrated all year round. Listen to these fabulous friends swap stories exploring how queer life has evolved over the decades and the silver linings they've collected along the way. Each episode dives into hot topics, from safe sex and online dating to untangling Gen Z lingo, as well as insights on how music, art, and fashion show up in queer culture. So check out Silver Linings a show about how pride ages like fine wine. Available on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Kal Penn]

Hey, audiobook lovers. This week on the podcast I'm sitting down with musician, producer and walking encyclopedia Questlove. We're talking about Mark Ronson's memoir Night how to be a DJ in 90s New York City. All right, like we talked about before, Mark Ronson found sanctuary in the DJ booth. What's a tool or piece of equipment in the studio or on stage that gives you the most control?

[Ed Helms]

So I have two microphones on stage. We have the microphone that you hear as the audience. Then we have a second microphone in which we communicate with each other. I feel like that second microphone kind of saved all of our friendships. No band likes each other after 20 years or 25 years. The Beatles broke up in seven and a half years and we're going on 35.

[Kal Penn]

Listen to Irsay the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club on the iHeartradio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

When the public universal friends selected a location for their community of followers, it was in a region that was being described as the unsettled frontier of the newly established United States of America. Of course, that was not true. What is now western New York was home to the Seneca Nation, one of the six nations of the Haudenosaunee confederacy. The Friend was described as being fair and respectful with the Seneca people that they encountered, but we also only have white people's descriptions of this.

[Holly Fry]

The Society's first community in New York was established in the Finger Lakes region, an area that was highly disputed before the Revolutionary War. The colonies of New York and Massachusetts had argued over whose charter it belonged to. After the war, Britain wanted to claim it for the Loyalists and their former Haudenosaunee allies. Meanwhile, the United States had tasked General John Sullivan with taking a scorched earth military campaign to punish the Haudenosaunee nations that had allied with the British.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Although the New York Constitution forbade private purchases of land from Indigenous nations, the New York Genesee Land Company, also known as the Lessee Company, had tried to get around this by securing a 999 year lease for it. Although the state ultimately invalidated that lease, the Company had become so influential that the state had to then bring them on as negotiators when trying to get a clear title to this land from the Indigenous population.

[Holly Fry]

So when the Society of Universal Friends started looking for land in 1785, they definitely were not heading to a pristine, unsettled frontier. This was, as we said, highly disputed territory, and the Society was benefiting from the systemic destruction of the Seneca Nation.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

The Society's first settlement was on the western shore of Seneca Lake. With the first group arriving in 1788. Their goal was to live in a truly communal way, with all of the community's land being collectively held. But that idea turned out to be impractical, especially given all of these ongoing lease and title disputes over the land they were on. Instead, every member who contributed money toward the land acquisition was given a receipt with their holding apportioned for use based on how much each person had invested. But all of the land was meant to belong to the community. Like there were no property lines around any person's individual plot of land. You could theoretically have the right to a certain percentage of it, but it wasn't defined as a specific piece of land in that parcel.

[Holly Fry]

Some of the Society's members returned to New England over the winter of 1788-1789 and then came back to New York in the spring. The Universal Friend didn't join them until 1790. They had planned to do so a year earlier, but nearly drowned in A carriage accident on the way.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

By this point, the Society of Universal Friends had grown dramatically, with new followers drawn in by the Friends charismatic preaching. The 1790 census recorded 260 people living in the community, making it the largest white settlement in western New York. They had also built a grist mill and a sawmill. A meeting house was finished in the summer of 1790 as well. Many of the settlement's households are actually headed by women, and there were, of course, a large number of women among the Friends adherents.

[Holly Fry]

However, after this initial success, the settlement ran into a series of problems. In 1790, the federal government assumed state's debts from the Revolutionary War under the funding act of 1790. The dispute between New York and Massachusetts about who owned western New York had been settled with the Phelps and gorham Purchase of 1788. But after the Funding act was passed, Massachusetts currency increased so much in value that Phelps and Gorham could no longer afford to pay for it. Land in the area changed hands repeatedly. Property values soared. The Society's land went from being worth $2,600 to being worth $86,000. And whether the area was part of New York or Massachusetts was once again disputed in the fallout from the Funding Act.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Yeah, when Phelps and Gorham couldn't afford to pay for it, Massachusetts was like, we could take some of it back then. Great.

[Holly Fry]

Gimme it.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Yeah. As all of this was going on, some of the Society's wealthiest investors decided that even though they had paid for this land on behalf of the community, they would take this opportunity to cash out on their investment and leave. This led to a bitter, bitter division between the community and some of its longtime members, as those with the most money arranged their sales without regard to who was living where or where people had built homes or planted orchards or made other improvements. Judge William Potter, for example, who we talked about earlier, made about $40,000 profit selling land that other people were actually living on.

[Holly Fry]

As the Society lost control of the land on Seneca Lake, they moved once again in early 1794, this time establishing New Jerusalem on the shores of Crooked Lake, now called Keuka Lake. The friend had started looking for land in 1792, and this time the deed for 1400 acres had assigned to Sarah Richards, also known as Sarah Friend, since the public universal Friend refused to do business under their legal name of record. Unfortunately, Sarah Friend died after a long illness on November 30, 1793, and her will left the land to another prominent woman in the society, Rachel Mallon.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Once the friend arrived in New Jerusalem in 1794, they lived in a log cabin with the poorest members of the community, the ones who couldn't afford to build homes of their own. The Friend had also established what they called the Faithful Sisterhood. This was a group of women adherents who were the Friend's support circle and missionary force. Some of the Faithful Sisterhood also wore clothing that blended masculine and feminine elements and avoid using gendered pronouns for themselves.

[Holly Fry]

The Friend and the Society didn't escape legal and land troubles by moving to Keuka lake, though. In 1796, Eliza Richards, daughter of the late Sarah Richards, eloped with Rachel Malan's younger brother, Enoch. Eliza was only 16, and Enoch was not believed to be particularly cunning. So it is not clear if they came up with this whole idea on their own or if someone else put them up to it. They claimed Sarah's will had been tampered with and that Eliza had really inherited the Society's land from her mother. And that meant that upon her marriage to Enoch, the land was legally his. In May of 1798, Enoch filed an ejection action against the community, and the legal actions that followed went on until long after Eliza, Enoch and the Friend had all died.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Then, in 1799, James Parker, one of the investors who had sold his land for profit earlier on, brought charges of blasphemy against the Friend as part of an ongoing attack by several former adherents who really seemed set on just taking down their former religious leader. Judge Potter was also part of this whole effort. The Friend was questioned all these on these blasphemy charges in 1800. They didn't give a direct answer about whether they were the Incarnation of Christ, but they flatly denied that they had tried to replicate any of Christ's miracles. The Judge ultimately ruled that under the US Constitution, blasphemy was no longer an indictable offense, and the charges were ultimately dropped.

[Holly Fry]

The Friend gave up most of their public speaking and preaching after this, except for services held in new Jerusalem. In 1818, the friend wrote out a will which provided for the Society's poorest members until the end of their lives. It had been signed public Universal Friend. But on the advice of an attorney, the Friend had added the note. Be it remembered that in order to remove all doubts of the due execution of the foregoing will and testament, being the person who before the year 1777, was known and called by the name of Jemima Wilkinson, but since that time as the Universal Friend.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Yeah, their attorney was basically like, after all of this land dispute that we have had going on for so many years. Please take this step to make sure to like not give somebody else ammunition for saying that your will is not valid. On April 19, 1819, Patience Wilkinson Potter died and the Friend gave their last public sermon at her funeral. The Friend died not long after, on July 1, 1819. Although the society's death book used the words left time to mean died, the friend's entry reads, quote, 25 minutes past 2 on the clock. The Friend went from here after lying in state for four days so adherents could pay their respects. The Friend's body was buried in an unmarked grave.

[Holly Fry]

Court proceedings in the dispute over Sarah Richards will went on until 1828. During that time, David Hudson wrote the first biography of the Friend. Hudson was a law partner of Robert W. Stoddard, who was representing Eliza and Enoch Malan's children in the land dispute. Rather than being an accurate account of the Friend's life, this was a libelous fiction meant to discredit the Friend and their community in court.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Writing in the Quarterly Journal of the New York State historical association in 1930, Robert P. St. John described this biography as a, quote, untrustworthy narrative composed practically of sensational fiction. In the 1960s, biographer Herbert Whisby wrote, quote, hudson's book should be considered properly not as a biography of Jemima Wilkinson, but as part of the campaign to get her land by discrediting her aims and aspersing her followers. Unfortunately, the untruths in Hudson's book were then repeated in other sources over the years, and over time, the most outlandish rumors and accusations became part of the lore surrounding the Friend.

[Holly Fry]

Under the terms of the Friend's will, the community's poorest members were, as we said, to be supported until the end of their lives. The last payments were made through a trust established by Rachel Malan, with the final payment from the trust made in 1862.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

The Friends Home in Jerusalem, New York is still standing today and it's listed on the National Register of Historic Places. And before you move on to listener mail, I just wanted to shout out to my friend Adriel, who read over the introduction and overall framing of this episode for me. So thank you, Adriel. Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. If you'd like to send us a note, our email address is historypodcastheartradio.com and you can subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Lowes/NordicTrack Advertiser]

The only thing between you and your best self is a start button. This Black Friday Explore the world with NordicTrack. From the peaks of Peru to the streets of Paris, every workout moves you somewhere new. With iFit trainers leading the way. The equipment's amazing, smooth, quiet, and those screens make it all feel real. Ready to start your next workout adventure with the number one treadmill brand in the U.S. shop NordicTrack.com for Black Friday savings? NordicTrack. Train anywhere. Explore everywhere.

[Kal Penn]

Hey, audiobook lovers. I'm Cal Penn.

[Ed Helms]

I'm Ed Helms.

[Kal Penn]

Ed and I are inviting you to join the best sounding book club you've ever heard with our podcast, Earsay, the Audible, and iHeart Audiobook Club.

[Ed Helms]

Each week we sit down with your favorite iHeart podcast hosts and some very special guests to discuss the latest and greatest audiobooks.

[Kal Penn]

From Audible, listen to Hearsay on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow earsay and start listening on the free iHeartradio app today.

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[Holly Fry]

All.

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[Holly Fry]

Mmm.

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[Tracy B. Wilson]

Janiece Torres here and I'm Austin Hankwitz. We host the podcast Mind the Business, Small Business Success Stories, produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Intuit QuickBooks. We're back for season four to talk.

[Annabe Sofa Advertiser]

To some incredible small business owners.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

The big thing about working at tech is that it's ever evolving, ever changing. Everyone's a rookie. That's how fast the industry is changing. So what I'm really excited about is to be part of that change. So listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.