Lucy Wright (1760–1821) was the leader of the central ministry of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, also known as the Shakers or Shaking Quakers, from 1796 until 1821.[1] Because few women preached at that time, and even fewer led churches, her administration of a religious sect of several thousand members was a radical departure from Protestant Christianity.
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Lucy was born February 5, 1760, the daughter of John and Mary (Robbins) Wright of Pontoosuck plantation (later Pittsfield, Massachusetts), in the Housatonic River valley of the Berkshire hills, just a few miles from the New York border. Pontoosuck plantation was essentially a frontier settlement. Aside from Jonathan Edwards’ Indian mission in Stockbridge, the area had no church until Lucy Wright was almost thirteen. The woods were so thick that newcomers had to girdle trees to clear land for planting.[2]
Lucy was a bright, lively, dark-eyed child. She grew into an attractive young woman, tall, graceful, and energetic, with strong shoulders and arms. She had dark hair, a good figure, and a beautiful smile. She also was popular, a leader among her peers.[3]
In 1779, Lucy Wright and her beau, Elizur Goodrich, participated in the New Light Baptist revival in New Lebanon, New York. Near the end of the revival, they heard a preacher expound on Romans 8:8 (“Those who are in the flesh cannot please God”), which may have set the stage for their later adoption of a new religion.[4]
Lucy Wright married Elizur Goodrich on December 15, 1779. Even before they married, the couple sought a new religion; that was what brought them to the revival in 1779, and that was also what brought them to the Shakers in 1780. Mother Ann Lee, leader of the Shakers, was an extraordinarily charismatic preacher and Elizur was quickly impressed with her new religion despite its requirements of celibacy and confession of sins.[5]
Elizur soon made a commitment to the Shakers. Lucy, however, was less easily convinced. She hung back while more than twenty of the Goodrich family confessed their sins and joined the Shakers. After several months of deliberation, Lucy gave up her marriage in favor of a Shaker covenant, which eventually allowed her to rise to leadership with the kind of power and authority that, outside of Shakerism, was usually held only by men. She resumed her maiden name and became a Shaker.[6]
As soon as Lucy shifted her commitment from her husband to her new religion, Mother Ann Lee found it expedient to separate the young couple. She sent Elizur on the road as an itinerant preacher and missionary. Lucy moved to the Shaker community at Watervliet, New York. There Lucy Wright inspired confidence and gained esteem through her diligence, faithfulness, and efficiency. As in Pittsfield, Lucy became a leader among her peers. Ann Lee mentored the young woman accordingly, grooming her for leadership, and Lucy cared for Ann Lee during her final illness.[7]
After Mother Ann died in 1784, Lucy’s responsibilities increased. By late 1788, the society’s new leader Joseph Meacham had summoned her to New Lebanon, New York, perhaps as a result of his revelation that Shakers should practice equality of the sexes, or gender equality. She became his female counterpart in the Ministry, and called her Mother Lucy. Together, they began bringing all things Shaker into order, reshaping their religious society to include gender-balanced government, and gathering Believers into their own communal villages.[8]
Lucy Wright worked with Joseph Meacham until his death in 1796. After his demise, Mother Lucy was the acknowledged leader of the Shaker Ministry, a team of two Elders and two Eldresses who governed the society.
Lucy Wright proved to be a brilliant administrator with significant influence at every level of Shaker society. She survived the exit of disaffected young men in the 1790s and successfully sustained “petticoat government.”[9] Her long tenure as the Ministry’s leader meant that she had ample opportunity to establish the principles of gender equality, and her leadership set an example for equality of the sexes.
Mother Lucy also made the decision to send missionaries out to preach at a number of revivals in New England and upstate New York. After hearing of the revivals at Cane Ridge, Kentucky (the Second Great Awakening), she sent a team of missionaries into the western wilderness, where they founded new Shaker villages in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana.[10]
Under her administration, the Shakers increased the publishing ventures that were useful and necessary for standardizing information across their widely-scattered religious society. Their first statement of their beliefs was the Testimony of Christ’s Second Appearing in 1810, followed by a hymnal in 1813.[11]
Lucy Wright remained at the helm of Shakerism until her death, exhorting the faithful and chiding the backsliders.[12] Her influence, however, persisted for many years after her death, because she named her own successors. She died at Watervliet in 1821, and was buried there.[13] Her grave is beside that of Mother Ann Lee, in the Shaker cemetery in the Watervliet Shaker Historic District, now the town of Colonie, New York.