The Canterbury Shakers closed membership in 1957, refused to recognize the converts at Sabbathday Lake, and the last Shaker community has three members in 2025

The Shakers, followers of Ann Lee, came to America in 1774 and held all property in common under a signed covenant. Members were celibate, so the communities grew only by converts. Canterbury, New Hampshire, founded in 1792, had about 300 members on 3,000 acres in the 1850s. In 1957 its three eldresses, who led the United Society, voted after months of prayer to close the covenant to new members. The Sabbathday Lake community in Maine kept accepting people. In 1988 Eldress Bertha Lindsay of Canterbury said the covenant was locked away and membership was closed forever, and did not recognize the young members at Sabbathday Lake. For a time Canterbury cut Sabbathday Lake off from community funds until lawyers for both sides restored access^†. Canterbury's last resident Shaker, Ethel Hudson, died in 1992, and the village has been a museum since. Sabbathday Lake owns about 1,643 acres. To keep it from becoming house lots, the Shakers sold conservation easements under a $3.7 million plan announced in 2005. Sister Frances Carr died on 2 January 2017 at 89, leaving Brother Arnold Hadd and Sister June Carpenter. In 2025 Sister April Baxter joined, and the community had three members^†. A nonprofit board, mostly non-Shakers, will decide the land's use if the Shakers die out.