Jemima's Rock: The woman behind the landmark

Carol W. Kimball

Jemima's Rock
Groton's Haley Farm
Jemima Wilkinson, 18th century preacher

Kim11-050

Scrapbook

8: Communication Artifact

Documentary Artifact

The Day

New London, CT

09/10/2007

Carol W. Kimball

Groton's Haley Farm has a huge split boulder left by the glaciers and shaped like a colonial church pulpit with an overhung canopy. Legend holds that Jemima Wilkinson once preached from the rock, probably during a visit to Groton in 1787. Jemima was the first American-born woman to found a religious society. She preached in the Second Baptist Church on top of Fort Hill, defying its pastor, Elder Silas Burrows. She was born in 1752 among the Quakers in Cumberland, R.I. After a long trance like illness she arose and proclaimed herself the Publick Universal Friend and launched her ministry. Among her followers were Jedediah Holmes of Stonington, Latham Avery and Richard Smith of Groton and the five sons of Benjamin Brown, all pillars of their communities. In the 1780s it was startling to hear a woman preach. Her habits of cleanliness, unique in the 18th century, caused suspicion. She was charged with fraud and blasphemy and accusations of sexual promiscuity. Jemima and about 260 adherents left New England for the wilderness of upper New York State in the town of Penn Yan. She died in the township of Jerusalem in 1819, her grave still a secret. Herbert A. Wisbey Jr. wrote her biography in 1964.

Winthrop, John (Jr.)
Wilkinson, Jemima
Burrows, Silas (Elder)
Holmes, Jedediah
Avery, Latham
Smith, Richard
Brown, Benjamin
Washington, Martha
Fox, George
Penn, William
Wisbey, Herbert A. (Jr.)

Jemima's Rock
Groton's Haley Farm
Quakers
book by Wisbey
18th century female preacher
Publick Universal Friend
nonconformist
Penn Yal
New York state
Cumberland, R.I.
Jerusalem