Public Universal Friend

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The Public Universal Friend<ref name="PUF" group="lower-alpha">Original spelling: the Publick Universal Friend. Shortened forms: the Universal Friend, the Friend, or P.U.F.</ref> (born Jemima Wilkinson; November 29, 1752 – July 1, 1819) was an American preacher born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, to Quaker parents. After suffering a severe illness in 1776, the Friend claimed to have died and been reanimated as a genderless evangelist named the Public Universal Friend, and afterward shunned both birth name and gendered pronouns. In androgynous clothes, the Friend preached throughout the northeastern United States, attracting many followers who became the Society of Universal Friends.<ref name="Lamphier-Welch-331">Peg A. Lamphier, Rosanne Welch, Women in American History (2017, Template:ISBN), p. 331.</ref>

The Friend's theology was broadly similar to that of most Quakers. The Friend stressed free will, opposed slavery, and supported sexual abstinence. The most committed members of the Society of Universal Friends were a group of unmarried women who took leading roles in their households and community. In the 1790s, members of the Society acquired land in Western New York where they formed the town of Jerusalem near Penn Yan, New York. The Society of Universal Friends ceased to exist by the 1860s. Many writersTemplate:Who have portrayed the Friend as a woman, and either a manipulative fraudster, or a pioneer for women's rights; othersTemplate:Who have viewed the Friend as transgender or non-binary and a figure in trans history.

Early lifeEdit

Wilkinson, who would later become the Public Universal Friend, was born on November 29, 1752, in Cumberland, Rhode Island, as the eighth child of Amy (or Amey, née Whipple) and Jeremiah Wilkinson,<ref name="Jemimah" group="lower-alpha">Some older texts use the spelling Jemimah Wilkinson, see e.g. those quoted by Moyer, p. 101 and pp. 106–108 or Wisbey, p. 93.</ref>Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref name="hudson">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp becoming the fourth generation of the family to live in America.Template:Sfn The child was given the name Jemima after Jemima, one of the biblical Job's daughters.Template:Sfn Wilkinson's great-grandfather, Lawrence Wilkinson, was an officer in the army of Charles I who had emigrated from England around 1650<ref>New York Folklore Quarterly (1955), vol. 11, p. 22</ref> and was active in colonial government. Jeremiah Wilkinson was a cousin of Stephen Hopkins, the colony's longtime governor and signer of the Declaration of Independence.Template:Sfn Jeremiah attended traditional worship with the Society of Friends (the Quakers) at the Smithfield Meeting House.Template:Sfn Early biographer David Hudson says that Amy was also a member of the Society for many years,Template:R while later biographer Herbert Wisbey finds no evidence of that, but quotes Moses Brown as saying the child was "born such" because of Jeremiah's affiliation.Template:Sfn Amy died when Wilkinson was 12 or 13 in 1764, shortly after giving birth to a twelfth child.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Wilkinson had fine black hair and eyes,Template:Sfn and from an early age was strong and athletic,Template:Sfn<ref name="Lamphier-Welch-331" /> becoming an adept equestrian as a child, remaining so in adulthood,Template:Sfn<ref name="Lamphier-Welch-331" /> and liking spirited horses and ensuring that animals received good care.Template:Sfn<ref name="New-England-Galaxy York-State-Tradition">The New-England Galaxy (1961), vol. 3, p. 5; York State Tradition (1968), vol. 22, p. 18.</ref> An avid reader,Template:Efn Wilkinson could quote long passages of the Bible and prominent Quaker texts from memory.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref name="Lamphier-Welch-331" /> Little else is reliably known about Wilkinson's childhood; some early accounts such as Hudson's describe Wilkinson as being fond of fine clothes and averse to labor, but there is no contemporaneous evidence of this and Wisbey considers it doubtful.Template:R Template:Sfn Biographer Paul Moyer says it may have been invented to fit a then-common narrative that people who experienced dramatic religious awakenings were formerly profligate sinners.Template:Sfn

In the mid-1770s, Wilkinson began attending meetings in Cumberland with New Light Baptists who had formed as part of the Great Awakening and emphasized individual enlightenment,Template:Sfn and stopped attending meetings of the Society of Friends Template:Endash being disciplined for that in February 1776 and disowned by the Smithfield Meeting in August.Template:Sfn<ref name="Not-using-You">Lend a Hand (1893), volume 10, § Jemima Wilkinson, p. 127.</ref><ref name="NEG-Thou-again">The New-England Galaxy (1961), vol. 3, p. 7</ref>Template:Sfn Wilkinson's sister Patience was dismissed at the same time for having an illegitimate child; brothers Stephen and Jeptha had been dismissed by the pacifistic Society in May 1776 for training for military service.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Amid these family disturbances and the broader ones of the American Revolutionary War, dissatisfied with the New Light Baptists and shunned by mainstream Quakers, Wilkinson faced much stress in 1776.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Becoming the Public Universal FriendEdit

File:Public Universal Friend Portrait.png

Portrait from David Hudson's 1821 biography

In October 1776 Wilkinson contracted an epidemic disease, most likely typhus, and was bedridden and near death with a high fever.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The future preacher's family summoned a doctor from Attleboro, six miles away, and neighbors kept up a death-watch at night.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The fever broke after several days.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Friend later reported that Wilkinson had died, receiving revelations from God through two archangels who proclaimed there was "Room, Room, Room, in the many Mansions of eternal glory for Thee and for everyone".<ref name="Room" group="lower-alpha">Wisbey (p. 12) notes that a brother recalled the Friend saying "There is Room Enough" at the time of the illness.</ref>Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Friend further said that Wilkinson's soul had ascended to heaven and the body had been reanimated with a new spirit charged by God with preaching his word, that of the "Publick Universal Friend",<ref name="Bronski-50">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Winiarski-430">Douglas L. Winiarski, Darkness Falls on the Land of Light (2017, Template:ISBN), p. 430.</ref><ref name="Roark-et-al">James L. Roark, Michael P. Johnson, Patricia Cline Cohen, The American Promise, Combined Volume: A History of the United States (2012, Template:ISBN) p. 307.</ref> describing that name in the words of Template:Bibleverse as "a new name which the mouth of the Lord hath named".Template:Sfn The name referenced the designation the Society of Friends used for members who traveled from community to community to preach, "Public Friends".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In the 18th and 19th centuries, some writersTemplate:Who said that Wilkinson did briefly die during the illness, or even was dead for an extended time before rising dramatically from a coffin, while othersTemplate:Who suggested that the entire illness was feigned. Accounts by the doctor and other witnesses state that the illness was real, but none of them say that Wilkinson died.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

From that time on, the Friend refused to answer to "Jemima Wilkinson",Template:Sfn<ref name="Winiarski-430 Juster-MacFarlane-27-28">Winiarski, p. 430; and Susan Juster, Lisa MacFarlane, A Mighty Baptism: Race, Gender, and the Creation of American Protestantism (1996, Template:ISBN), p. 27, and p. 28.</ref> ignoring or chastising those who insisted on using it.Template:Efn Template:Sfn Hudson says that when visitors asked if it was the name of the person they were addressing, the Friend simply quoted Template:Bibleverse ("thou sayest it").Template:R Identifying as neither male nor female,<ref name="Bronski-50" /><ref name="Winiarski-430" /><ref name="Roark-et-al" /> the Friend asked not to be referred to with gendered pronouns. Followers respected these wishes; they referred only to "the Public Universal Friend" or short forms such as "the Friend" or "P.U.F.", and many avoided gender-specific pronouns even in private diaries,<ref name="Juster-MacFarlane-27-28">Juster & MacFarlane, A Mighty Baptism, pp. 27–28</ref>Template:Sfn while others used he.Template:Sfn When someone asked if the Friend was male or female, the preacher replied "I am that I am",<ref name="Schmidt"/>Template:Sfn saying the same thing to a man who criticized the Friend's manner of dress (adding, in the latter case, "there is nothing indecent or improper in my dress or appearance; I am not accountable to mortals").<ref>Susan Juster, Doomsayers: Anglo-American Prophecy in the Age of Revolution (2010, Template:ISBN, p. 228</ref><ref>Adam Jortner, Blood from the Sky: Miracles and Politics in the Early American Republic (2017), p. 192</ref>

The Friend dressed in a manner perceived to be either androgynous or masculine,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn in long, loose clerical robes which were most often black,<ref name="Juster-MacFarlane-27-28 Roark-et-al">Juster & MacFarlane, A Mighty Baptism, pp. 27–28; Roark et al., p. 307.</ref> and wore a white or purple kerchief or cravat around the neck like men of the time.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The preacher did not wear a hair-cap indoors, like women of the era,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn and outdoors wore broad-brimmed, low-crowned beaver hats of a style worn by Quaker men.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Accounts of the Friend's "feminine-masculine tone of voice" varied;Template:Sfn some hearers described it as "clear and harmonious", or said the preacher spoke "with ease and facility", "clearly, though without elegance"; others described it as "grum and shrill", or like a "kind of croak, unearthly and sepulchral".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Friend was said to move easily, freely, and modestly,Template:Sfn and was described by Ezra Stiles as "decent & graceful & grave".Template:Sfn<ref name="New-England-Galaxy">The New-England Galaxy (1961), vol. 3, p. 5.</ref>

Beliefs, preaching, and the Society of Universal FriendsEdit

File:Seal of the Universal Friend.svg

The "Seal of the Universal Friend"

The Friend began to travel and preach throughout Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania accompanied by brother Stephen and sisters Deborah, Elizabeth, Marcy,Template:Efn and Patience, all of whom were disowned by the Society of Friends.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Early on, the Public Universal Friend preached that people needed to repent of their sins and be saved before an imminent Day of Judgment.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn According to Abner Brownell, the preacher predicted that the fulfillment of some prophecies of Revelation would begin around April 1780, 42 months after the Universal Friend began preaching, and interpreted New England's Dark Day in May 1780 as fulfillment of that prediction.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn According to a Philadelphia newspaper, later followers Sarah Richards and James Parker believed themselves to be the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation and accordingly wore sackcloth for a time.Template:Sfn

The Friend did not bring a Bible to worship meetings, which were initially held outdoors or in borrowed meeting houses,<ref name="Rappleye-187">Rappleye, p. 187.</ref> but preached long sections of the scriptures from memory.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref name="Lamphier-Welch-331" /> The meetings attracted large audiences, including some who formed a congregation of "Universal Friends", making the Friend the first American to found a religious community.<ref name="Benowitz-638-re-charismatic-and-founding">June Melby Benowitz, Encyclopedia of American Women and Religion, 2nd Edition (2017, Template:ISBN), p. 638: "the first native-born American to found a religious community"</ref> These followers included roughly equal numbers of women and men who were predominantly under 40.Template:Sfn Most were from Quaker backgrounds, though mainstream Quakers discouraged and disciplined members for attending meetings with the Friend.Template:Sfn Indeed, the Society of Friends had disowned the Friend, disapproving of what William Savery considered "pride and ambition to distinguish [them]self from the rest of mankind".<ref name="Lamphier-Welch-331" /> Free Quakers, disowned by the main Society of Friends for participating in the American War of Independence, were particularly sympathetic and opened meeting houses to the Universal Friends, appreciating that many of them had also sympathized with the Patriot cause, including members of the Friend's family.Template:Sfn

Popular newspapers and pamphlets covered the Friend's sermons in detail by the mid-1780s,<ref name="Bronski-51" />Template:Sfn with several Philadelphia newspapers being particularly critical; they fomented enough opposition that noisy crowds gathered outside each place the preacher stayed or spoke in 1788.Template:Sfn Most papers focused more on the preacher's ambiguous gender than on theology,<ref name="Bronski-51">Bronski, p. 51</ref>Template:Sfn which was broadly similar to the teachings of most Quakers;Template:Sfn Template:Sfn one person who heard the Friend in 1788 said "from common report I expected to hear something out of the way in doctrine, which is not the case, in fact [I] heard nothing but what is common among preachers" in mainstream Quaker churches.Template:Sfn The Friend's theology was so similar to that of the mainstream Quakers' that one of two published works associated with the preacher was a plagiarism of Isaac Penington's Works because, according to Abner Brownell, the Friend felt that the sentiments would have more resonance if republished in the name of the Universal Friend.Template:Sfn The Universal Friends also used language similar to that of the Society of Friends, using thee and thou instead of the more formal singular you.<ref name="NEG-Thou-again"/>Template:Sfn<ref name="Not-using-You" />

The Public Universal Friend rejected the ideas of predestination and election, held that anyone, regardless of gender, could gain access to God's light and that God spoke directly to individuals who had free will to choose how to act and believe, and believed in the possibility of universal salvation.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Calling for the abolition of slavery,<ref>Joyce Appleby, Eileen Chang, Neva Goodwin, Encyclopedia of Women in American History (2015, Template:ISBN), p. 201.</ref><ref>Charles Rappleye, The Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade, and the American Revolution (2006), p. 187.</ref><ref>Mrs. Walter A Henricks, The Universal Friend (Jemima Wilkinson), in Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine (1943), p. 120</ref> the Friend persuaded followers who held people in slavery to free them.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Several members of the congregation of Universal Friends were black, and they acted as witnesses for manumission papers.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Friend preached humilityTemplate:Sfn and hospitality towards everyone;Template:Sfn kept religious meetings open to the public, and housed and fed visitors, including those who came only out of curiosityTemplate:Sfn and indigenous people, with whom the preacher generally had a cordial relationship.<ref name="James-et-al-610 tJoAH-253">Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, Paul S. Boyer, Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary (1971, Template:ISBN), p. 610; The Journal of American History (1915), p. 253</ref> The Friend had few personal possessions, given mainly by followers, and never held any real property except in trust.Template:Efn Template:Sfn<ref name="Betcher-77" />

The Friend preached sexual abstinence and disfavored marriage but did not see celibacy as mandatory and accepted marriage, especially as preferable to breaking abstinence outside of wedlock.Template:Sfn Most followers did marry, but the portion who did not was significantly above the national average of the time.Template:Sfn The preacher also held that women should "obey God rather than men",<ref name="Betcher-77">Sharon V. Betcher, "The Second Descent of the Spirit of Life from God": the Assumption of Jemima Wilkinson (online copy), in Gender and Apocalyptic Desire, Brenda E. Brasher and Lee Quinby (eds.), 2014, Template:ISBN, p. 77 and p. 87.</ref> and the most committed followers included roughly four dozen unmarried women known as the Faithful Sisterhood who took on leading roles of the sort which were often reserved to men.Template:Sfn The portion of households headed by women in the Society's settlements (20%) was much higher than in surrounding areas.Template:Sfn

Around 1785, the Friend met Sarah and Abraham Richards. The Richards' unhappy marriage ended in 1786 when Abraham died on a visit to the Friend. Sarah and her infant daughter took up residence with the Friend, adopted a similarly androgynous hairstyle, dress, and mannerisms (as did a few other close female friends), and came to be called Sarah Friend.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Friend entrusted Richards with holding the society's property in trust,Template:Sfn and sent her to preach in one part of the country when the Friend was in another.Template:Sfn<ref name="Klees-79">Emerson Klees, Persons, Places, and Things in the Finger Lakes Region (1993), p. 79.</ref> Richards had a large part in planning and building the house in which she and the preacher lived in the town of Jerusalem,Template:Sfn and when she died in 1793, she left her child to the Friend's care.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

In October 1794, the Friend and several followers dined with Thomas Morris (son of financier Robert Morris) in Canandaigua at the invitation of Timothy Pickering, and accompanied him to talks with the Iroquois aimed at producing the Treaty of Canandaigua. With Pickering's permission and an interpreter, the Friend gave a speech to the US government officials and Iroquois chiefs about "the Importance of Peace & Love", which was liked by the Iroquois.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Settlement of the Gore and Jerusalem, and legal issuesEdit

In the mid-1780s, the Universal Friends began to plan a town for themselves in western New York.Template:Sfn By late 1788, vanguard members of the Society had established a settlement in the Genesee River area; by March 1790, it was ready enough that the rest of the Universal Friends set out to join it,Template:Sfn<ref name="turner">Template:Cite book</ref> making it the largest non-Native community in western New York.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn However, problems arose. James Parker spent three weeks in 1791 petitioning the governor and land office of New York on behalf of the Society to get a title to the land that the Friends had settled,Template:Sfn but while most of the buildings and other improvements that the Universal Friends made were to the east of the initial Preemption Line and thus in New York, when the line was resurveyed in 1792 at least 25 homes and farms were now west of it, outside the area granted by New York, and residents were forced to repurchase their lands from the Pulteney Association.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The town, which had been known as the Friend's Settlement, therefore came to be called The Gore.Template:Sfn

Furthermore, the lands were in the tract on which Phelps and Gorham defaulted which was resold to financier Robert Morris and then to the Pulteney Association, absentee British speculators.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Each change of hands drove prices higher, as did an influx of new settlers attracted by the Society's improvements to the area.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The community lacked a solid title to enough land for all its members, and some left.Template:Sfn Others wanted to profit by taking ownership of the land for themselves, including Parker and William Potter.Template:Sfn To address the first of these issues, members of the Society of Universal Friends had secured some alternative sites. Abraham Dayton acquired a large area of land in Canada from Governor John Graves Simcoe, though Sarah Richards persuaded the Friend not to move so far.Template:Sfn Separately, Thomas Hathaway and Benedict Robinson had purchased a site in 1789 along a creek which they named Brook Kedron that emptied into the Crooked Lake (Keuka Lake).Template:Sfn The new town which the Universal Friends began there came to be called Jerusalem.

The second issue, however, came to a head in the fall of 1799.Template:Sfn Judge William Potter, Ontario County magistrate James Parker, and several disillusioned former followers led several attempts to arrest the Friend for blasphemy,Template:Sfn which some writers argue was motivated by disagreements over land ownership and power.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn An officer tried to seize the Friend while riding with Rachel Malin in the Gore, but the Friend, a skilled horse-rider, escaped.Template:Sfn The officer and an assistant later tried to arrest the preacher at home in Jerusalem, but the women of the house drove the men off and tore their clothes.Template:Sfn A third attempt was carefully planned by a posse of 30 men who surrounded the home after midnight, broke down the door with an ax, and intended to carry the preacher off in an oxcart.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn A doctor who had come with the posse stated that the Friend was in too poor a state of health to be moved, and they made a deal that the Friend would appear before an Ontario county court in June 1800, but not before Justice Parker.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn When the Friend appeared before the court, it ruled that no indictable offense had been committed, and invited the preacher to give a sermon to those in attendance.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref name="Intelligencer-437">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Death and legacyEdit

The Public Universal Friend's health had been declining since the turn of the century; by 1816, the preacher had begun to suffer from a painful edema but continued to receive visitors and give sermons.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Friend gave a final regular sermon in November 1818 and preached for the last time at the funeral of sister Patience Wilkinson Potter in April 1819.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

The Friend died on July 1, 1819; the congregation's death book records "25 minutes past 2 on the Clock, The Friend went from here."Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In accordance with the Friend's wishes, only a regular meeting and no funeral service was held afterwards.Template:Sfn The body was placed in a coffin with an oval glass window set into its top and interred four days after death in a thick stone vault in the cellar of the Friend's house.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Several years later, the coffin was removed and buried in an unmarked grave in accordance with the preacher's preference.Template:Sfn Obituaries appeared in papers throughout the eastern United States.Template:Sfn Close followers remained faithful,Template:Sfn but they too died over time; the congregation's numbers dwindled due to their inability to attract new converts amid a number of legal and religious disagreements. The Society of Universal Friends disappeared by the 1860s.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

File:South view of the Friends Home - Yates County NY.jpg

South view of the Friend's Home (engraving from 1842)

The Friend's Home and temporary burial chamber stands in the town of Jerusalem, and it is included on the National Register of Historic Places.<ref name="Martin-CLR">John H. Martin, Saints, Sinners and Reformers: The Burned-Over District Re-Visited, in the Crooked Lake Review (2005)</ref> It is believed to be located on the same branch of Keuka Lake as the birthplace of Seneca chief Red Jacket,<ref name="Davis-5">Davis, Miles Avery. History of Jerusalem, vol. 2, p. 5.</ref> but his birthplace is disputed. The Yates County Genealogical and Historical Society's museums in Penn Yan exhibit the Friend's portrait, Bible, carriage, hat, saddle, and documents from the Society of Universal Friends.<ref name="Martin-CLR" />Template:Sfn<ref name="Yates-Museum">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} and Yates County Genealogical & Historical Society Sesquicentennial Celebration 1860–2010 Template:Webarchive</ref> As late as the 1900s, inhabitants of Little Rest, Rhode Island, called a species of solidago Jemima weed because its appearance in the town coincided with the preacher's first visit to the area in the 1770s.Template:Sfn<ref name="Taylor-Clapp">Christian M McBurney, Kingston: a forgotten history (1975), p. 32; and records from when it was still in use: Philip Kittredge Taylor, "Little Rest", in The New England Magazine, vol. 28, no. 2 (April 1903), p. 139; and Ebenezer Clapp (compiler), The Clapp Memorial: Record of the Clapp family in America (1876), p. 372.</ref>

The Friend and followers were pioneers of the area between Seneca and Keuka lakes. The Society of Universal Friends erected a grain mill in Dresden.<ref>W. H. McIntosh, History of Ontario Co., New York (1878), p. 15.</ref>

Interpretations and legendsEdit

Although the Public Universal Friend identified as genderless, neither a man nor a woman, many writers have portrayed the preacher as a woman, and either a fraudulent schemer who deceived and manipulated followers or a pioneering leader who founded several towns in which women were empowered to take on roles often reserved to men.Template:Sfn The first view was taken by many writers in the 18th and 19th centuries, including David Hudson, whose hostile and inaccurate biography (written to influence a court case over the Society's land) was long influential.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref>Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, Paul S. Boyer, Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary (1971): "David Hudson's Hist. of Jemima Wilkinson (Geneva, N.Y., 1821) was inspired by malice and self-interest and is inaccurate as to fact."</ref> These writers circulated myths of the Friend despotically bossing followers around or banishing them for years, making married followers divorce, taking their property, or even attempting and failing to raise the dead or walk on water; there is no contemporaneous evidence for these stories, and people who knew the Friend, including some who were never followers, said the rumors were false.Template:Sfn<ref name="Moyer-re-stories">Template:Harvnb (re making followers divorce and will property to them), Template:Harvnb (re raising the dead), Template:Harvnb (re walking on water and the tales' falsity; Moyer (p. 203) adds that the story of a follower being banished to Nova Scotia may be a distortion of how an early follower and British loyalist fled to Nova Scotia during the Revolutionary War.</ref>

Another story began at a 1787 meeting, after which Sarah Wilson said Abigail Dayton tried to strangle Wilson while she slept but choked her bedmate Anna Steyers by mistake.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Steyers denied anything had happened, and others present attributed Wilson's fears to a nightmare. Nevertheless, Philadelphia papers printed an embellished version of the accusation and several follow-ups, with critics alleging the attack must have had the Friend's approval, and the story eventually morphing into one in which the Friend (who was in a different state at the time) strangled Wilson.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn One widespread allegation which sparked much hostility was the accusation that the preacher claimed to be Jesus; the Friend and the Universal Friends repeatedly denied this accusation.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Modern writers have often portrayed the Friend as a pioneer, an early figure in the history of women's rights (a view taken by Susan Juster and Catherine Brekus) or in transgender history (a view explored by Scott Larson and Rachel Hope Cleves). Historian Michael Bronski says that the Friend would not have been called transgender or transvestite "by the standards and the vocabulary" of the time,<ref name="Bronski-not-trans">Bronski, page 53.</ref> but has called the Friend a "transgender evangelist".<ref>Aaron Weiner, Jemima Wilkinson, Elusive Messiah by Robert Boucheron, September 13, 2011, Streetlight</ref><ref>A Queer History of the United States (review/summary), May 10, 2011, in the Beacon Broadside of Beacon Press</ref> Juster calls the Friend a "spiritual transvestite", and says that followers considered the Friend's androgynous clothing congruent with the genderless spirit which they believed animated the preacher.Template:Sfn<ref name="Larson" />

Juster and others state that, to followers, the Friend may have embodied Paul's statement in Galatians 3:28 that "there is neither male nor female" in Christ.Template:Sfn<ref>Charles Campbell, 1 Corinthians: Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible (2018, Template:ISBN)</ref> Catherine Wessinger, Brekus, and others state that the Friend defied the idea of gender as binary and as natural and essential or innate,<ref name="Wessinger-173 Brekus-90 Betcher-77">Catherine Wessinger, The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism (2016, Template:ISBN), p. 173</ref>Template:Sfn<ref>Betcher, p. 77.</ref> though Brekus and Juster argue that the Friend nonetheless reinforced views of male superiority by "dressing like a man" and repeatedly insisting on not being a woman.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Scott Larson, disagreeing with narratives that place the Public Universal Friend into the gender binary as a woman, writes that the Friend can be understood as a chapter in trans history "before 'transgenderTemplate:'".<ref name="Larson">Scott Larson, "Indescribable Being": Theological Performances of Genderlessness in the Society of the Publick Universal Friend, 1776–1819, Early American Studies (University of Pennsylvania Press), volume 12, number 3, Fall 2014, pp. 576–600</ref><ref name="Cleves-and-Routledge">Rachel Hope Cleves, Beyond the Binaries in Early America: Special Issue Introduction, Early American Studies 12.3 (2014), pp. 459–468; and The Routledge History of Queer America, edited by Don Romesburg (2018, Template:ISBN), esp. § "Revolution's End".</ref> Bronski cites the Friend as a rare instance of an early American publicly identifying as non-binary.<ref name="Schmidt">Samantha Schmidt, A genderless prophet drew hundreds of followers long before the age of nonbinary pronouns, January 5, 2020, The Washington Post</ref>

T. Fleischmann's essay "Time Is the Thing the Body Moves Through" examines the Friend's narrative with an eye to the colonizing nature of evangelism in the US,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> viewing it as "a way to think through the limitations of imagination as a white settler".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Public Universal Friend was also featured in an episode of the NPR radio program and podcast Throughline.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>