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Letter from Heber C. Kimball and Others, 25 May 1840

Source Note

, , and , Letter, , Lancashire, England, to the First Presidency (including JS), high council, and bishop, [], Hancock Co., IL, 25 May 1840. Featured version copied [ca. late July 1840] in JS Letterbook 2, p. 168; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.

Historical Introduction

On 25 May 1840, and British mission members and wrote a letter from , England, to leaders in , Illinois. The letter introduced a group of Latter-day Saints immigrating to the Nauvoo area from the Preston region. described this group, which consisted of forty-one individuals, as the “first Company of Saints from .” The company—led by John Moon, a cousin of Clayton’s wife, —departed on 6 June 1840 and arrived in on 20 July.
, , and may have mailed this letter to . Alternatively, they may have entrusted it to John Moon or another member of the company, who may have posted it upon arrival in . Had Moon carried the letter all the way to Nauvoo, it would not have reached church leaders until almost a year after it was written. Though the company of Saints departed overland for Nauvoo only eight days after they arrived in the , they stayed almost eight months in the area and did not arrive in , Iowa Territory—across the from Nauvoo—until April 1841. The original letter is not extant. copied the letter into JS Letterbook 2 likely sometime around the end of July 1840.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Fielding was appointed as president of the British mission on 8 April 1838, with Clayton as his second counselor. (Thompson, Journal of Heber C. Kimball, 37–38; Fielding, Journal, 10 Apr. 1838, 60.)

    Thompson, Robert B. Journal of Heber C. Kimball an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Nauvoo, IL: Robinson and Smith, 1840.

    Fielding, Joseph. Journals, 1837–1859. CHL. MS 1567.

  2. [2]

    Historian’s Office, Brigham Young History Drafts, 40.

    Historian’s Office. Brigham Young History Drafts, 1856–1858. CHL. CR 100 475, box 1, fd. 5.

  3. [3]

    William Clayton, Penwortham, England, to Brigham Young and Willard Richards, Manchester, England, 19 Aug. 1840, Brigham Young Office Files, CHL. The Saints reached New York Harbor on 17 July but were held in quarantine for three days before being allowed to disembark. (Allen and Alexander, Manchester Mormons, 98.)

    Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1.

    Allen, James B., and Thomas G. Alexander, eds. Manchester Mormons: The Journal of William Clayton, 1840 to 1842. Santa Barbara, CA: Peregrine Smith, 1974.

  4. [4]

    “Book of the Life of Hugh Moon,” 25–26.

    “The Book of the Life of Hugh Moon.” In Biographical Sketches of the Moon Family of Malad, Idaho, compiled by Deseret Moon, Elva E. Moon, Ellen Greer Rees, and Lavern Ward, 23–38. Provo, UT, 1955. Copy at BYU.

  5. [5]

    The letter is preceded and followed in the letterbook by incoming and outgoing JS correspondence dated to the last two weeks of July 1840. (Letter to Horace Hotchkiss, 28 July 1840; Letter from John C. Bennett, 25 July 1840.)

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Letter from Heber C. Kimball and Others, 25 May 1840
Letterbook 2 History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page 168

May 25th. 1840
To the , and of the at
We commend to your notice the bretheren and sisters having <​that have​> commendation commendatory letters from us of this date, that you will do all that you consistently can for them. for I verily believe they have the utmost confidence in you, and will receive with gratitude your ad[v]ice and instruction, and cheerfully submit to the rules and regulations of the church. They have our blessings, and we trust their subsequent conduct will entitle them <​to​> your <​blessings​> also and the church generally.
We rejoice that we can say the work of God here is in a prosperous way, yea, we rejoice greatly at the aspect of the times, expecting the time to be not far distant when the standard of truth will be conspicuously raised throughout this Land. We have witnessed the flowing of the saints towards , the stream has begun and we expect to see it continue running, till it shall have drained the salt or the light from Babylon, when we hope to shout Hosana home.
Dear brethren accept our love, and present it to the church of your bretheren in the
)
)
) [p. 168]
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Source Note

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Page 168

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Heber C. Kimball and Others, 25 May 1840
ID #
544
Total Pages
1
Print Volume Location
JSP, D7:287–288
Handwriting on This Page
  • Howard Coray

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    No letters of recommendation from Kimball, Fielding, or Clayton bearing this date have been located.

  2. [2]

    Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and their associates in the British mission had enjoyed considerable success in their proselytizing efforts. At the general conference of the church held in Preston the previous month, representatives gave reports of thirty-three local congregations, the membership of which totaled over 1,600. In the six weeks prior to the conference, Wilford Woodruff baptized 158 people near Ledbury, England, and reported another 200 were ready to be baptized (30 of whom were baptized prior to Woodruff’s return from Preston). (“From England,” Times and Seasons, June 1840, 1:119–122; Clayton, Diary, 15 Apr. 1840; Woodruff, Journal, 14–16 Apr. 1840.)

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

    Clayton, William. Diary, Vol. 1, 1840–1842. BYU.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  3. [3]

    Although John Moon’s company was the first group of English Latter-day Saints to emigrate, the second company, led by Theodore Turley, departed Liverpool on 8 September 1840 and arrived in Nauvoo five months earlier than the first company, on 24 November 1840. According to Clayton—who, with his family, emigrated with Turley’s group—this much larger second company numbered 201 individuals. (Clayton, Diary, 8 Sept. and 24 Nov. 1840.)

    Clayton, William. Diary, Vol. 1, 1840–1842. BYU.

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