Noyes, John Humphrey (1811-1886)

US religious and communal leader. He formulated the ‘doctrine of free love’ 1837 and in 1848 founded the Oneida Community in central New York which served as a forum for his social experiments. In 1879 Noyes was forced to move to Canada to avoid legal action against him. The former community, which made silverware and steel traps, became a joint stock company 1881.

Born in Brattleboro, Vermont, Noyes was educated at Dartmouth and the Andover Seminary. While at Yale Divinity School, he announced that he had achieved human perfection and was promptly expelled. An advocate of alternative forms of marriage, he founded a religious society in Putney, Vermont 1836.