SHAKERS

In Ecclesiastical History, a sect said to have originated by a sece ion from the body of Quakers, in 1747, in Lancashire; who received their nickname from the peculiar contortions of body which they adopted in their religious exercises. Anne Lee, the great female leader of this sect, joined the society in 1758; and, considering herself persecuted in England, went, with a few followers, to New York in 1774, and died ten years afterwards, at which time her sect had made great progre in America. She was considered as the woman spoken of in Revela tions. The sect appears to have fallen into obscurity, although a few congregations still remain. [s. 1132]