England. She was born in the year 1736.* Her father was by occupation a blacksmith, and tho poor, he was respectable in character, moral in principle, honest and punctual in his dealings, and industrious in business. Her mother was esteemed as a religious and very pious woman. They had eight children, five sons and three daughters. Their children, as was then common with poor people in manufacturing towns, were brought up to work instead of being sent to school. By this means Ann acquired a habit of industry, but could neither read nor write. During her childhood and youth, she was employed in a cotton factory, and was afterwards a cutter of hatter's fur. She was also, for some time, employed as a cook in the Manchester infirmary, and was peculiarly distinguished for her faithfulness, neatness, prudence and economy.

In her childhood she discovered a very bright and active genius, was remarkably sagacious, but serious and thoughtful, and never addicted to play like other children. In early childhood she was the subject of religious impressions, and was peculiarly favored with heavenly visions. As she advanced in years she was strongly impressed with a sense of the great depravity of human nature, and of the odiousness of sin, and especially of the impure and indecent nature of sexual coition. She often expressed her feelings to her mother concerning these things, and earnestly desired that she might be kept from the snares of sin, and from those abominations which her soul abhorred.

But not having attained that knowledge of God which she early desired, and finding no one to strengthen and assist her in the pursuit of that true holiness which she sought after, nor even to encourage her to withstand the powerful examples of a lost world, (her mother having deceased while she was yet young,) she grew up in the same fallen nature with the rest of mankind, and through the importunities of her relations, was married to Abraham Stanley, a blacksmith by trade. By him she had four children who all died in infancy; one only, which was a daughter, attained to the age of about six years. They lived together at her father's house, in peace and harmony, and procured a comfortable living. But the convictions of her youth often returned upon her with great force, which at length brought her under excessive tribulation of soul. In this situation she sought earnestly for deliverance from the bondage of sin, and gave herself no rest, day nor night, but often spent whole nights in laboring and crying to God for deliverance from sin.

While under these exercises of mind, she became acquainted with James and Jane Wardley, and the society under their care. It is said she was born the last day of February.

As these people were favored with a greater degree of divine light, and a more clear and pointed testimony against the nature of sin than had hitherto been made manifest, Ann readily embraced their testimony, and united herself to the society in the month of September 1758, being then in the 23d year of her age. The light of these people led them to an open confession of every sin which they had committed, and to a full and final cross against every thing which they knew to be evil: hence they were endowed with great power over sin; and hence Ann found that protection which she had so long desired, and which, for the time being, was answerable to her faith. By her faithful obedience to the counsel and instruction of her leaders, she was baptized into the same spirit, and, by degrees, attained to the full knowledge and experience in spiritual things which they had found.

As she occasionally related to the American believers some of her experience and sufferings in England, it may not be improper to give the following short sketch concerning the early part of her faith, in her own words.

"Soon after I set out to travail in the way of God, I labored anights in the works of God. Sometimes I labored all night, “continually crying to God for my own redemption; sometimes "I went to bed and slept; but in the morning I could not feel "that sense of the work of God which I did before I slept. This "brought me into great tribulation. Then I cried to God, and "promised him, that if he would give me the same sense that I had "before I slept, I would labor all night. This I did many nights; "and in the day time I put my hands to work and my heart to "God; and when I felt weary and need of rest, I laboured for the 66 power of God, and the refreshing operations of the power of "God would release me, so that I would feel able to go to my work ❝ again.

"Many times when I was about my work, I felt my soul over"whelmed with sorrow; and I used to work as long as I could "keep it concealed, and then run to get out of sight, lest some one "should pity me with that pity which God did not. In my tra❝vail and tribulation, my sufferings were so great, that my flesh "consumed upon my bones, and bloody sweat pressed through "the pores of my skin, and I became as helpless as an infant. "And when I was brought through, and born into the spiritual "kingdom, I was like an infant just born into the world. They "see colors and objects; but they know not what they see; and 66 so it was with me when I was born into the spiritual world. "But before I was twenty-four hours old, I saw, and I knew what "I saw.

John Hocknell, who was well acquainted with her in the time

of her experience and sufferings in England, used frequently to speak of them, with many peculiar circumstances that came under his knowledge. According to his account, as well as that of her own, and others who came from England with her, it appears that in watchings, fastings, tears and incessant cries to God, she labored day and night, for deliverance from the very nature of sin; and that, under the most severe tribulation of mind, and the most violent temptations and buffetings of the enemy, the agony of her soul was often so extreme as to occasion a perspiration of blood. Sometimes, for whole nights together, her cries, screeches and groans were such as to fill every soul around with fear and trembling.

By these painful sufferings and deep mortifications her flesh sometimes wasted away, like that of a person in a consumption, till she became so weak and emaciated that her friends were obliged to support and nourish her like a helpless infant; altho she possessed by nature a sound and strong constitution, and an invincible fortitude of mind. Tho Ann was wrought upon in this manner, more or less, for the space of nine years; yet she often had intervals of releasment, in which her bodily strength and vigor was sometimes miraculously renewed, and her soul was at times filled with heavenly visions and divine revelations. By these means the way of God, and the nature of his work, gradually opened upon her mind with increasing light and understanding. The divine manifestations which she received, from time to time, were communicated to the society, and tended greatly to enlighten the understandings, and encourage the faith of the members, and to increase and confirm their testimony.

Her mind, ever intent on the great work of salvation, was deeply affected concerning the lost state of mankind, which she clearly saw in all their works. But the real foundation of that loss was still concealed from her view; nor could she see any prospect of recovery under existing circumstances: for she had long been convinced that there was nothing in all their religious professions nor practises that could save them from sin here, or furnish any reasonable hope of salvation hereafter. Hence she spent much time in earnest and incessant cries to God, to shew her the real foundation of man's loss, what it was, and wherein it consisted; how the way of salvation could be effectually opened to a lost world in its present state; and how the great work of redemption was to be accomplished.

While in deep exercise of mind concerning these things, she was brought into a state of excessive tribulation of soul, in which she felt her way hedged up, seemingly, on every side, and was constrained to cry mightily to God, to open some way of deliver

ance.

In the midst of her sufferings and earnest cries to God, her

soul was filled with divine light, and the mysteries of the spiritual world were brought clearly to her understanding. She saw the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory, who revealed to her the great object of her prayers, and fully satisfied all the desires of her soul. The most astonishing visions and divine manifestations were presented to her view in so clear and striking a manner, that the whole spiritual world seemed displayed before her. In these extraordinary manifestations, she had a full and clear view of the mystery of iniquity, of the root and foundation of human depravity, and of the very act of transgression, committed by the first man and woman, in the garden of Eden. Here she saw whence and wherein

all mankind were lost from God, and clearly realized the only possible way of recovery. This revelation she received in the summer of 1770, in prison, where she was confined on account of her religious principles, under a pretence of her having profaned the sabbath.

Tho Ann had before received many extraordinary manifestations of God, tho she had received great light concerning the depravity of human nature, and the effects of man's loss from God, and tho she had taken up her cross against the carnal gratifications of the flesh, and had testified her faith to the society on this subject, many of whom, in consequence of her testimony, had walked in the same faith; yet, not having then received a clear revelation of the root of human depravity, and the cause of man's fall, she had continued to yield obedience to James and Jane Wardley, as her superiors, and was eminently useful to them in leading, teaching, strengthening and protecting the society.

But when she was released from her imprisonment, and came to reveal to the society these last extraordinary manifestations, so great was the display of divine light with which her soul was filled, and so mighty the power of God which accompanied her testimony, and so keen the searching power of her spirit in discovering and bringing to light the hidden works of darkness, that every soul present was struck with astonishment and filled with fear and trembling. They saw at once that the candle of the Lord was in her hand, and that she was able by the light thereof, to search every heart and try every soul among them. From this time she was received and acknowledged as the first visible leader of the church of God upon earth.

The preceding work in this society, under the ministration of James and Jane Wardley, was evidently preparatory to the ushering in of the second coming of Christ; and it may with propriety be compared to the work of John the Baptist, or the spirit of Elias, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus. When therefore Ann was baptized into the fulness of the spirit and work of that society, she was

then prepared for the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and was made a fit vessel to receive the true Spirit of Christ, and to revive and bring to light his perfect law of righteousness for the direction and salvation of all souls who were willing to obey her testimony; and here commenced the real manifestation of Christ's second appear

ance.

*

From this time the light and power of God revealed in Ann, and through her administered to those who received her, testimony, had such sensible effect in giving them power over all sin, and filling them with visions, revelations and other gifts of God, that she was readily acknowledged as their spiritual Mother in Christ. Hence she received the title of Mother; and hence those of the society who received and obeyed her testimony, found a great increase in the power and gifts of God; while on the other hand, those who rejected it, lost all their former light and power, and fell back into a state of darkness, and into the common course of the world.

By the immediate revelation of Christ she henceforth_bore an open testimony against the lustful gratifications of the flesh, as the source and foundation of human corruption; and testified, in the most plain and pointed manner, that no soul could follow Christ in the regeneration, while living in the works of natural generation, or in any of the gratifications of lust. Her testimony was often delivered with such mighty power of God, accompanied with such a heart-searching and soul-quickening spirit, that it seemed to penetrate every secret of the heart. By this means the most hidden abominations were often brought to light; and those secret acts of wickedness, which had been deceitfully covered under a fair outside profession of sanctity, were many times brought to view in such a manner as to make every guilty soul fear and tremble in her pre

sence.

Here it may be proper to notice that, notwithstanding all Mother Ann's inward sufferings and tribulation, her outward afflictions and persecutions were often very severe and cruel. The powerful testimony which she maintained against all sin, together with the wonderful operations of the Spirit of God which prevailed in the meetings of her little society, through her ministration, excited public attention, and stirred up the malignant feelings of many, both professors and profane, of almost every class and description, to such a degree of enmity that, by formal opposition and tumultuous mobs, open persecution and secret malice, her very life seemed many times in great jeopardy. She was often shamefully and cruelly abused, and a number of times imprisoned. To state, *It has been asserted by some writers that she styled herself the Elect Lady; but this is a groundless charge: that title was given by her enemies in derision.