HICKS, Elias (1748-1830), founder of the Hicksites, one of the two great sections into which the Society of Friends in America has since 1828 been divided (see Quakers), was born at Hempstead, Long Island, on March 19, 1748. During the earlier part of his life he followed the business of a carpenter and housebuilder; but this occupation he latterly exchanged for that of farming. Reared iu a Quaker family, he began, when about twentyseven years of age, to “have openings leading to the ministry,” and to be “deeply engaged for the right administration of discipline and order in the church.” In the intervals of business, accordingly, he began to visit the meetings and families of Friends throughout an extensive range of country; and soon he established a very considerable reputation as an efficient and popular itinerant preacher. His first literary effort seems to have been made no earlier than 1811, when he published Observations on Slavery; those doctrinal divergences from the received orthodox creed of the Friends, by which his name was brought into the prominence it now possesses, appear not to have become visible until 1820, when he wrote a Doctrinal Ej)istle (published in 1824), which was followed by much controversy, and resulted in 1828 in the formal separation from the Hicksites of their more orthodox Quaker brethren. The points involved were justly considered to affect the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion, such as those of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the supreme authority of Scripture. Hicks died at Jericho, Long Island, on February 27, 1830. See Journal of the Life and Labours of Elias Hicks (Philadelphia, 1828).