Born: Feb 29, 1736, Manchester, England
Died: Sept 8, 1784, Watervliet, New York, U.S.
Ann Lee was an English mystic, who brought the Shaker sect to America. Born in Manchester and uneducated, she worked in a cotton factory and as a cook. In 1758, she joined the Shaking Quakers, an extreme offshoot of the English Quakers. Becoming convinced through visions that Christ’s second coming had been fulfilled in her, she assumed leadership of the Shakers, who called her Mother Ann or Ann the Word. She claimed to possess the gift of tongues and the ability to work miracles. In 1774, she led a group of eight followers to Watervliet, New York, where she established the first Shaker settlement in America.
