A very scarce and desirable volume recounting the life and ministry of radical revivalist, Jemima Wilkinson.
Wilkinson founded a radical, prophetic community called "Jerusalem" in western New York in 1790. She was already well known for her visions, religious dreams, and prophesying. It began when, during the course of a fever, she fell into a prolonged trance from which she emerged with the conviction that she had died. She believed that her original soul and body were now inhabited by the "Spirit of Life" which came from God "to warn a lost and guilty, gossiping, dying World to flee from the wrath to come."
Another of her followers, Sarah Richards, also had visions. She would swoon as she went into vision and lie "motionless and apparently lifeless" for extended periods of time. Afterward, she would rise up to deliver her message. Curiously enough, less than 30 miles away, Joseph Smith had the revelations that founded the Mormon religion several years after Wilkinson. William Miller, another Upstate New York farmer, also came from this region and began the Seventh Day Adventists.
Wilkinson, Jemima. Memoir of Jemima Wilkinson, a Preacheress of the Eighteenth Century; Containing an Authentic Narrative of Her Life and Character, and of the Rise, Progress, and Conclusion of Her Ministry. Bath, New York. R. L. Underhill & Co. 1844. 288pp.
A rather tidy example of this work in attractive blind-stamped cloth with only minor rubbing. Front interior hinge to mull, but stable. Same with the rear. Binding very solid with some minor toning. One blank after text absent and the fly leaf and frontis at the front absent.