Letter from Brigham Young, 29 April 1840
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Source Note
, Letter, [, Herefordshire, England], to JS “and counselors,” [, Hancock Co., IL, 29 Apr. 1840]. Featured version published in Times and Seasons, June 1840, 121–122. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
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Historical Introduction
On 29 April 1840, wrote a letter to JS and his counselors in the . Young had left , Iowa Territory, on 14 September 1839 to serve a mission to and was informing the First Presidency of the growth and status of the in Great Britain. The document appears to have primarily served as a cover letter for a report of a general of the church held two weeks earlier in , England. The letter asked JS and his counselors to correct any action of the conference they felt was amiss, conveyed the English Saints’ request for a new hymnal, and included a personal note from Young about his desire to reunite with his old friends.The report of the conference gave detailed information about the numbers of church members and holders in the various in and Scotland. It recorded business the conference conducted, including decisions to compile and publish a hymnal and a monthly periodical and to select and a —all under the direction of the . The report, which also contained minutes of meetings the Twelve held in Preston on 14 and 16 April, was published in , Illinois, in the June 1840 issue of the Times and Seasons immediately preceding the published version of ’s letter. No manuscript copy of the letter has been located. The Times and Seasons version does not include a date or place of production. However, the published version is followed by a letter from , which Woodruff indicated was written in unused space on Young’s letter. Woodruff’s letter was dated 29 April 1840 and gave , England, as the location from which the letter was sent.
Footnotes
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1
Young, Journal, 14 Sept. 1839.
Young, Brigham. Journals, 1832–1877. Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1, boxes 71–73.
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2
Minutes, 15 Apr. 1840, Wilford Woodruff, Collection, 1831–1905, CHL.
Woodruff, Wilford. Collection, 1831–1905. Digital scans. CHL. Originals in private possession.
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3
“From England,” Times and Seasons, June 1840, 1:119–122.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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4
The manuscript report of the conference is in the Wilford Woodruff Collection, CHL. The letter from Wilford Woodruff to the Times and Seasons editors, Ebenezer Robinson and Don Carlos Smith, was printed accompanying the conference report in the June 1840 issue of the periodical and was apparently written on the same paper as Young’s letter. Woodruff opened his letter by saying, “As elder Young is writing, I am privileged with a space for a few lines.” (Minutes, 15 Apr. 1840, Wilford Woodruff, Collection, 1831–1905, CHL; “From England,” Times and Seasons, June 1840, 1:122.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Collection, 1831–1905. Digital scans. CHL. Originals in private possession.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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