Bertha Lindsay; Last Elder of Celibate Shaker Sect Was 93

Bertha Lindsay, the last elder of the Shakers, a celibate religious sect that promoted communal living and pacifism for more than 200 years, has died. She was 93.

Miss Lindsay, who died Wednesday, was one of the last members of the religion that once boasted 6,000 members in 24 communities. One woman in her 90s remains in Canterbury, once home to 400 Shaker residents. Fewer than 10 live in Maine. Able to add to their ranks only by taking in orphans or converts, Shaker spiritual leaders decided to halt new membership in 1965, but Miss Lindsay often said the movement’s beliefs would not die with the last Shakers.

“Mother” Ann Lee, who brought the religion to the United States, prophesied that Shakers “would diminish to as many as a child could count on one hand, and then there would be a revival of the spirit,” Miss Lindsay once said.

The religion originated in England in the 1770s as the Shaking Quakers and grew under Miss Lee’s leadership. She moved to New York in 1774 with eight followers. The community in Canterbury was founded in the 1780s.

The Shakers, formally the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, gained their nickname from trembling brought on by religious fervor. They advocated living apart from society at large in communal villages.

Born July 27, 1897, in Braintree, Mass., Miss Lindsay came to Canterbury in 1905 as an orphan. Orphans taken in by the Shakers had to decide at age 21 whether to take a vow of celibacy and remain in the community or leave.

“I had studied the laws and regulations of the church and felt this was the life for me,” she said. “I could give as much here as I could anywhere else in the world and could have more friends, both men and women. If I had gone into the world and married, I wouldn’t have had that. . . . It has been a busy, active life and a wonderful experience.”

When she turned 90, Miss Lindsay lost her sight and put her energies into recording her life story and memories of Shaker life.

“I want people to know we did have fun and plenty of it,” she said.