Member of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, a celibate millenarian sect that established communal settlements in the U.S. in the 18th century.
Derived from a branch of radical English Quakers (see Society of Friends ), the movement was brought to the U.S. in 1774 by Shaker furniture ). The movement reached its height in the 1840s and thereafter gradually declined; today the lone remaining community is at Canterbury, N.H.