“Good News from America,” Millennial Star, July 1840, 1:63.  

Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.

See Introduction to City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–A; and Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, An Ordinance Concerning Vagrants and Disorderly Persons, 13 Nov. 1841, 31.  

In September 1842 William Clayton recorded a rumor in JS’s journal that the posse attempting to arrest JS for extradition to Missouri had used Davis’s tavern as a base of operations. JS, Journal, 3 Sept. 1842.  

For the other cases, see City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Ardent Spirits, City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Assault of Walker, and City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of Miles.  

Complaint, 29 Nov. 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–B]; Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, An Ordinance in Relation to Religious Societies, 1 Mar. 1841, 13. This complaint was one of two complaints JS swore out before Wells on 29 November. The other accused Thomas Hunter of violating the city statute concerning religious societies by maligning JS. (See Complaint, 29 Nov. 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Hunter].)  

Docket Entry, 30 Nov. 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–B]. The Ordinance in relation to Religious Societies allowed for trial before either the mayor’s court or Nauvoo’s municipal court. (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, An Ordinance in Relation to Religious Societies, 1 Mar. 1841, 13.)  

Docket Entry, 30 Nov. 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–B]. According to a modern law dictionary, a prosecuting witness is “the private person upon whose complaint or information a criminal accusation is founded and whose testimony is mainly relied on to secure a conviction at the trial.” (“Prosecuting Witness,” in Black, Law Dictionary, 958.)  

Black, Henry Campbell. A Law Dictionary Containing Definitions of the Terms and Phrases of American and English Jurisprudence, Ancient and Modern and Including the Principal Terms of International, Constitutional, Ecclesiastical and Commercial Law, and Medical Jurisprudence, with a Collection of Legal Maxims, Numerous Select Titles from the Roman, Modern Civil, Scotch, French, Spanish, and Mexican Law, and Other Foreign Systems, and a Table of Abbreviations. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, 1910.

Docket Entry, 30 Nov. 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–B].  

JS, Journal, 30 Nov. 1842.  

Complaint, 30 Nov. 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C]. JS’s 29 November 1842 complaint had merely accused Davis of using “ridiculous and abusive language.” (Complaint, 29 Nov. 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–B].)  

Complaint, 30 Nov. 1842, [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C]; Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, An Ordinance Concerning Vagrants and Disorderly Persons, 13 Nov. 1841, 31.  

See Docket Entry, between 30 Nov. and ca. 3 Dec 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C]. The disorderly persons ordinance allowed for trial before the mayor’s court or the municipal court. (See Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, An Ordinance Concerning Vagrants and Disorderly Persons, 13 Nov. 1841, 31.)  

Docket Entry, between 30 Nov. and ca. 3 Dec 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C]. Those convicted under the vagrant or disorderly persons ordinance were required to enter a recognizance to keep the peace for a “reasonable time” and could be further subject to forced labor for up to ninety days or a fine of up to five hundred dollars if their recognizance was violated. (Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, An Ordinance Concerning Vagrants and Disorderly Persons, 13 Nov. 1841, 31.)  

See Docket Entry, between 30 Nov. and ca. 3 Dec 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C].  

See Bond, 9 Dec. 1842 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C]; Supersedeas, 19 Jan. 1843 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C]; Supersedeas, 19 Jan. 1843 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Ardent Spirits]; and Supersedeas, 19 Jan. 1843 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Assault]. For example, the slander and assault cases used the same praecipe, and some of the documents, such as Davis’s attorney’s motion to dismiss, show signs of being docketed with two different case numbers. (See Praecipe, 9 May 1843; and Motion, ca. 15 May 1843–A [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C].)  

Agreement, 18 May 1843.  

Only two of Bachman’s motions to dismiss the appeals are extant, but docket records indicate that a third was filed. (See Motion, ca. 15 May 1843–A [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C]; Motion, ca. 15 May 1843 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C]; Motion, ca. 15 May 1843–A [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Ardent Spirits]; Motion, ca. 15 May 1843–B [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Ardent Spirits]; Motion, ca. 15 May 1843 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Assault]; and Docket Entry, Motions, 16 May 1843 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Assault].)  

See Motion, ca. 15 May 1843–A [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C]; Motion, ca. 15 May 1843 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C]; and Docket Entry, Motions Overruled, 16 May 1843 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C].  

Docket Entry, 23 May 1843 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C]; Docket Entry, ca. 16 May 1843 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C].  

See Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, An Ordinance Concerning Vagrants and Disorderly Persons, 13 Nov. 1841, 31; and Act to Incorporate the City of Nauvoo, 16 Dec. 1840. The same day it dismissed Nauvoo’s case against Davis, the Hancock County Circuit Court also dismissed one of JS’s complaints against Thomas Hunter that was tried under similar circumstances. (Hancock Co., IL, Circuit Court Records, 1829–1897, vol. C, pp. 409, 473, microfilm 947,496, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL. )  

U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

Docket Entry, Fieri Facias, between 23 May and ca. 18 Dec. 1843 [City of Nauvoo v. Davis for Slander of JS–C].