Letter from John Taylor, 3 February 1841
-
Source Note
, Letter, , Lancashire, England, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 3 Feb. 1841. Featured version published in Times and Seasons, 1 May 1841, vol. 2, no. 13, 400–402. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
-
Historical Introduction
Written on 3 February 1841 in , England, ’s letter to JS in , Illinois, recounted Taylor’s travel to and proselytizing work in the British Isles during the previous year and a half.In July 1838, JS dictated a revelation appointing and three other men to fill vacant positions in the . The revelation instructed the Twelve to “go over the great waters and there promulge [promulgate] my gospel.” The revelation’s call to fulfill a proselytizing mission abroad “next spring” allowed the apostles some time for preparation, but it likely tested their commitment, as it came on the cusp of the 1838 conflict between the and other Missourians that resulted in many deaths, the incarceration of JS and other church leaders, and the expulsion of the Latter-day Saints from , which led the Saints to flee to and . As a result of the expulsion, most Saints lived in temporary housing and in poor conditions. Taylor and his family temporarily resided in a one-room section of a “miserable, old log barrack” in , Iowa Territory, and, though they were grateful for this lodging, they nevertheless lacked many basic necessities. Despite these hardships, Taylor and the other apostles began preparing for their mission overseas.On 8 August 1839, set out for the British Isles with , who was “severely afflicted with fever.” Shortly after departing , Taylor also came down with a high fever, an illness that almost took his life; because of his extreme illness, he and Woodruff eventually parted ways as Woodruff left Taylor behind to recover. Taylor later met fellow apostle in , Ohio, and they continued to . When Taylor arrived in in November, he and Woodruff reunited and booked passage to with , a member of the . At the conclusion of a stormy, three-week crossing of the Atlantic, the men arrived in on 11 January 1840. After his arrival in England, Taylor spent most of his time in Liverpool but also preached in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man.expressed his intention to send the letter featured here the day after he completed it by “Steam Packet,” or mail steamer. The letter probably arrived in sometime within the next five to eight weeks. That JS received the letter is confirmed by its publication in the May 1841 issue of Times and Seasons, the church periodical in Nauvoo. The original letter is apparently no longer extant. JS, who had two months earlier replied to several letters from the Twelve in a general letter to the group, apparently never responded directly to this letter from Taylor.
Footnotes
-
1
Revelation, 8 July 1838–A [D&C 118:4].
- 2
-
3
John Taylor, “Reminiscences,” Juvenile Instructor, 30 Oct. 1875, 256.
Noble, Joseph B. “Early Scenes in Church History.” Juvenile Instructor, 15 May 1880, 112.
-
4
John Taylor, Letter to the Editor, Millennial Star, May 1841, 2:13; John Taylor, Germantown, IN, to Leonora Cannon Taylor, Commerce, IL, 19 Jan. 1839, John Taylor, Collection, CHL; see also Esplin, “Sickness and Faith, Nauvoo Letters,” 425–434.
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
Esplin, Ronald K. “Sickness and Faith, Nauvoo Letters.” BYU Studies 15, no. 4 (Summer 1975): 425–434.
-
5
John Taylor, Letter to the Editor, Millennial Star, May 1841, 2:13–14; John Taylor, Liverpool, England, to Leonora Cannon Taylor, Commerce, IL, 30 Jan. 1840, John Taylor, Collection, CHL.
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
-
6
Even the fastest Atlantic mail steamers took approximately two weeks, and the additional distance from New York to Nauvoo added another several weeks. (See Shulman, Coal and Empire, 17–21.)
Shulman, Peter A. Coal and Empire: The Birth of Energy Security in Industrial America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015.
-
7
JS had written to the Twelve in England: “Having several communications laying before me, from my Brethren the ‘Twelve’ some of which have ere this merited a reply, but from the multiplicity of business which necessarily engages my attention I have delayed communicating to them, to the present time.” (Letter to Quorum of the Twelve, 15 Dec. 1840.)
-
1
Document Transcript
| 160. | Isle of Man | 70. | |
| Ireland about | 25. | Howarden [Hawarden, Wales] | 30. |
Footnotes
-
1
There is no earlier extant letter from John Taylor in Britain that is addressed to JS, even though Taylor departed Nauvoo for his mission eighteen months earlier. (John Taylor, Letter to the Editor, Millennial Star, May 1841, 2:13.)
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
-
2
A March 1832 revelation declared that JS had received “the keys of the Kingdom.” This language drew on the New Testament record of Christ promising Peter he would receive “the keys of the kingdom of heaven”; it also appears in other, earlier church writings. (Revelation, 15 Mar. 1832 [D&C 81:2]; Matthew 16:19; see also Revelation, 30 Oct. 1831 [D&C 65:2].)
-
3
See Ephesians 1:10.
-
4
See Romans 11:25; and Book of Mormon, 1840 ed., 37, 473 [1 Nephi 15:13; 3 Nephi 16:4].
-
5
Moroni, Alma, Amulek, and Nephi are all significant figures found in the Book of Mormon. Previously, JS had identified the biblical archangel Michael as Adam, the first man.
-
6
See Hebrews 11:40.
-
7
For letters from other members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, see, for example, Letter from Brigham Young, 29 Apr. 1840; Letter from Brigham Young, 7 May 1840; Letter from Heber C. Kimball and Others, 25 May 1840; Letter from Heber C. Kimball, 9 July 1840; and Letter from Brigham Young and Willard Richards, 5 Sept. 1840.
-
8
The Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, the church’s periodical in England, was founded in May 1840, with Parley P. Pratt as editor. The paper facilitated a great deal of the communication between church leaders in England and the church presidency in Nauvoo. (“Prospectus,” Millennial Star, May 1840, 1:1.)
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
- 9
-
10
This counsel most likely referred to the excerpt from JS’s 15 December 1840 letter to the Council of the Twelve that appeared in the January 1841 Times and Seasons. The printed excerpt included the bulk of the epistle while omitting the last section on baptism for the dead and particular instructions for the apostles serving in England. (“Extract from an Epistle to the Elders in England,” Times and Seasons, 1 Jan. 1841, 2:258–261.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
-
11
The church’s proselytizing efforts in Europe began in earnest in Preston, England, with the apostles’ first mission to the British Isles in July 1837. (Kimball, Journal, 22 July 1837.)
Kimball, Heber C. Journal, June 1837–Feb. 1838; Feb.–Mar. 1840; May 1846–Feb. 1847. Heber C. Kimball, Papers, 1837–1866. CHL. MS 627, box 3, fd. 2.
-
12
See 2 Samuel 5:24.
-
13
See Ezekiel 37:1–13.
-
14
Taylor’s fever exhausted his strength so severely that he tumbled out of the carriage onto the road twice. The second fall apparently caused Taylor to lose consciousness, as it was only “with difficulty that [he] was restored to animation.” Fever and fatigue delayed Taylor’s travels and forced him to rest in Indiana under the care of Jacob Waltz and his family, who ran the Waltz Inn in Germantown. (John Taylor, Letter to the Editor, Millennial Star, May 1841, 2:13–14; Woodruff, Journal, 1–2 Sept. 1839; Young, History of Wayne County, Indiana, 245; see also Esplin, “Sickness and Faith, Nauvoo Letters,” 425–434.)
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Young, Andrew W. History of Wayne County, Indiana, from Its First Settlement to the Present Time; with Numerous Biographical and Family Sketches. Cincinnati: Robert Clark & Co., 1872.
Esplin, Ronald K. “Sickness and Faith, Nauvoo Letters.” BYU Studies 15, no. 4 (Summer 1975): 425–434.
-
15
During his stay in Kirtland between 4 and 22 November 1839, Taylor and other members of the Quorum of the Twelve, including Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and George A. Smith, visited the House of the Lord, participated in sacred rituals, and met regularly. On 9 November, Taylor was ceremonially washed in Reuben McBride’s home and anointed in the House of the Lord in preparation for his mission to the British Isles. (Turley, Reminiscences and Journal, 4–22 Nov. 1839.)
Turley, Theodore. Reminiscences and Journal, Sept. 1839–July 1840. Photocopy. CHL. MS 1950.
-
16
Taylor, Woodruff, and Turley arrived in Liverpool on 11 January 1840 and traveled to Preston on 13 January. (Fielding, Journal, 1838–1840, 104; John Taylor, Liverpool, England, to Leonora Cannon Taylor, Commerce, IL, 30 Jan. 1840, John Taylor, Collection, CHL.)
Fielding, Joseph. Journals, 1837–1859. CHL. MS 1567.
-
17
Joseph Fielding was serving as the president of the British mission with Willard Richards and William Clayton serving as his counselors. (Thompson, Journal of Heber C. Kimball, 37–38; Fielding, Journal, 1837–1838, 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.
-
18
This account refers to Taylor’s experience in an Aitkenite chapel. The Aitkenites were followers of Reverend Robert Aitken, who broke with the Anglican Church and founded the “Christian Society” in 1835 in Liverpool. Aitken led his brand of Wesleyan congregations together with Reverend Timothy Matthews, the brother-in-law of Joseph Fielding, before eventually returning to Anglicanism. Matthews was familiar with Latter-day Saint teachings since this was not the first encounter between missionaries and the Aitkenites. Many of the early English converts from Heber C. Kimball’s mission in the late 1830s were Aitkenites. During Taylor’s 1841 encounters with them, Aitken’s followers proved to be receptive to the apostles’ message, even if their leaders vehemently opposed the missionaries. In fact, some of the bad reports mentioned by Taylor were from Matthews, who attempted to dissuade his congregation from listening to the missionaries. On this particular day, however, Matthews was not present, and another preacher delivered the sermon. The apostles’ preaching on the topics of authority and baptism convinced many Aitkenites that the apostles offered them something they were missing from Aitken and Matthews. (Fielding, Journal, 1838–1840, 108–109; Underwood, Millenarian World of Early Mormonism, 131–133; Oliver, Prophets and Millennialists, 222; John Taylor, Liverpool, England, to Leonora Cannon Taylor, Commerce, IL, 30 Jan. 1840, John Taylor, Collection, CHL; “Mission to England,” Millennial Star, Apr. 1841, 1:292–294.)
Fielding, Joseph. Journals, 1837–1859. CHL. MS 1567.
Underwood, Grant. The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.
Oliver, William Hosking. Prophets and Millennialists: The Uses of Biblical Prophecy in England from the 1790s to the 1840s. [Oxford]: Oxford University Press, 1978.
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
-
19
This Aitkenite leader was William C. Mitchell, who was baptized a Latter-day Saint on 4 February 1840. (Fielding, Journal, 1838–1840, 108–109, 113.)
Fielding, Joseph. Journals, 1837–1859. CHL. MS 1567.
-
20
Included in this group were Mitchell and his wife, Eliza. Joseph Fielding’s record of the interaction with these ten individuals also included a miraculous healing. (Fielding, Journal, 1838–1840, 113.)
Fielding, Joseph. Journals, 1837–1859. CHL. MS 1567.
-
21
For his series of lectures, Taylor booked the Music Hall on Bold Street, which reportedly held over two thousand people. He had initially rented a smaller room in Renshaw Street, which only held three to four hundred. (George J. Adams, Liverpool, England, 14 Dec. 1841, Letter to the Editor, Millennial Star, Jan. 1842, 2:141; Fielding, Journal, 1840–1841, 1–2, 87.)
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
Fielding, Joseph. Journals, 1837–1859. CHL. MS 1567.
-
22
One of these two converts was Thomas Tait, who is considered the first convert to the church in Ireland. (John Taylor, Letter to the Editor, Millennial Star, May 1841, 2:15.)
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
-
23
Theodore Curtis arrived in Ireland in September 1840 and continued preaching the gospel and attending to a small group of converts in Hillsborough. (Utah Pioneers, 26.)
The Utah Pioneers. Celebration of the Entrance of the Pioneers into Great Salt Lake Valley. Thirty-Third Anniversary, July 24, 1880. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Printing, 1880.
-
24
In spring 1840, Reuben Hedlock joined Orson Pratt, Alexander Wright, and Samuel Mulliner as the first missionaries in Scotland. Hedlock had spent the better part of nine months proselytizing and organizing the church in Glasgow, leaving on 9 March 1841. (“Sketch of the Travels and Ministry of Elder R. Hedlock,” Millennial Star, Oct. 1841, 2:92–93.)
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
-
25
The man Taylor encountered most likely printed James Mulholland’s poem “An Address to Americans” in a Belfast newspaper. Mulholland was a native of Ireland who immigrated to Canada and then the United States. This poem, which dealt with the persecutions the Latter-day Saints suffered in Missouri in the 1830s, was also published in Nauvoo in 1841 by Robert B. Thompson, one of the editors of the Times and Seasons. Mulholland died in November 1839. (Mulholland, Address to Americans, 2; Obituary for James Mulholland, Times and Seasons, Dec 1839, 1:32.)
Mulholland, James. An Address to Americans: A Poem in Blank Verse. Nauvoo, IL: E. Robinson, 1841.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
-
26
Taylor rented the Wellington Room in Douglas, Isle of Man, for his lecture series in September 1840. (John Taylor, Liverpool, England, 27 Feb. 1841, Letter to the Editor, Millennial Star, Mar. 1841, 1:276.)
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
-
27
Taylor’s efforts included a public debate with Thomas Hamilton, published rebuttals to both J. Curran and the Wesleyan Methodist preacher Robert Heys, and public lectures in response to Samuel Haining. The content of the debates was also reproduced in the pages of the Isle of Man’s local papers, Manx Liberal, Manx Sun, and the Manx Star, through the end of the year. (John Taylor, Liverpool, England, 27 Feb. 1841, Letter to the Editor, Millennial Star, Mar. 1841, 1:276–278; see also excerpts of the Manx Liberal in Millennial Star, Nov. 1840, 1:178–183.)
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
-
28
Taylor stayed with Solomon and Ann Hughlings Pitchforth somewhere on the North Quay. Their son Samuel was reportedly the first convert to the church on the Isle of Man. It is possible the chimney corner was either in the Pitchforth home on the North Quay or in one of the hotels Solomon ran on the island. In 1841, Solomon was operating the Marine Hotel in Peel and the Mitre Hotel in Kirk Michael. (Obituary for Samuel Pitchforth, Millennial Star, 28 Jan. 1878, 40:64; Ann Hughlings Pitchforth, “To the Saints in the Isle of Man,” Millennial Star, 15 July 1846, 8:12; Great Britain Census Office, Census Returns of the Isle of Man, 1841, Parish of Michael, District 2, p. 8, microfilm 464,356, British Isles Record Collection, FHL.)
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
British Isles Record Collection. FHL.
-
29
The papers Taylor sent to JS may have been the local newspapers from the Isle of Man that detailed the debates between Taylor and his various detractors.
-
30
After Blakeslee arrived in Liverpool from New York in November 1840, Taylor asked him to take his place on the Isle of Man. Blakeslee remained on the Isle of Man from 16 November 1840 to 16 February 1841. (James Blakeslee, Rome, NY, 11 June 1841, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 15 July 1841, 2:484.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
-
31
See Letter from Brigham Young and Willard Richards, 5 Sept. 1840; and Letter to Quorum of the Twelve, 15 Dec. 1840.
- 32
-
33
Orson Hyde was en route to Liverpool and arrived on 3 March 1841. Though Hyde and Page were chastised for “delaying their mission,” Page remained in Cincinnati and abandoned the mission to the Holy Land. (Letter from Orson Hyde, 17 Apr. 1841; Notice, Times and Seasons, 15 Jan. 1841, 2:287; Letter from John E. Page, 1 Sept. 1841.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
-
34
James Burnham traveled with James Blakeslee and Levi Richards from New York to Liverpool in late 1840. Burnham was commissioned to proselytize in northern Wales. (James Blakeslee, Rome, NY, 11 June 1841, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 15 July 1841, 2:484.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
-
35
Captain Richard K. Porter led the voyage aboard the ship Sheffield from Liverpool to New Orleans, Louisiana, from 7 February to 30 March 1841. (Neibaur, Journal, 7 Feb. and 30 Mar. 1841.)
Neibaur, Alexander. Journal, 1841–1862. CHL. MS 1674.
-
36
Taylor is referring here to the “Oriental Crisis” covered extensively in British newspapers. The Egyptian viceroy, Muhammad Ali Pasha, sought to extend his control over the Ottoman Empire’s holdings from Gaza to Asia Minor. After several attempts at conquest, which had varying degrees of success, Muhammad Ali’s rebellions were quelled by British troops, and he was forced to return to Egypt. Muhammad Ali’s hopes for French military support proved baseless when France also rejoined the pro-Ottoman nations in October 1840. (Karsh and Karsh, Empires of the Sand, 39.)
Karsh, Efraim, and Inari Karsh. Empires of the Sand: The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1789–1923. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
-
37
Alexander McLeod was a Canadian sheriff who ordered an attack on the private American steamboat the Caroline because it was being used to aid Canadian rebels. One American was killed in the altercation, generating American outrage toward the Canadians and the British Empire. The incident occurred on 29 December 1837, and several retaliatory attacks followed. On 22 May 1838, the United States ambassador, Andrew Stevenson, demanded reparations in London. These developments were well documented in the British press. By the time Taylor wrote this letter, the affair had not been settled. Wilford Woodruff, who was also in England at the time, mentioned the McLeod affair in his journal entry a week later. (Stevens, Border Diplomacy, 13–17, 33–35; Woodruff, Journal, 17 Feb. 1841.)
Stevens, Kenneth R. Border Diplomacy: The Caroline and McLeod Affairs in Anglo-American- Canadian Relations, 1837–1842. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1989.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
-
38
Taylor’s linking of turmoil and political unrest in the Ottoman Empire with the possibility of a Jewish return to Jerusalem was a common Christian approach of the time. Fellow apostle Orson Hyde was called to serve a mission abroad, to observe and report on the “present views and movements of the Jewish people,” and to help facilitate their return to Jerusalem by dedicating the Holy Land. The Times and Seasons even translated and republished an appeal to rally support for such a return that had originally been published in the German newspaper Der Orient. (Recommendation for Orson Hyde, 6 Apr. 1840; “The Jews,” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1841, 2:563–564. For more instances of this sentiment, see Kark, American Consuls in the Holy Land, 23.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Kark, Ruth. American Consuls in the Holy Land, 1832–1914. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University; Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994.
-
39
The British and Qing empires engaged in what was later called the First Opium War from 1839–1842. After Chinese officials attempted to block trade and eradicate opium use in China, the British retaliated by destroying river blockades and occupying Canton. Residing in England at the time, Taylor was surrounded by printed reports and fervent public discourse debating the future and ramifications of the conflict in China and the opium trade. For instance, the London Dispatch ran an article on 25 August 1839 on how the “news from China continue[d] to occupy much of the public mind.” The “Opium Question” increasingly filled the pages of periodicals, and in March 1840, Taylor and Joseph Fielding even visited Pembroke Chapel to hear a lecture on the war. The speaker was decidedly against British coercion in continuing the opium trade and related detailed accounts of British injustice. He also referenced chapter 18 of the book of Revelation to describe the traffic in slaves and the souls of man. According to Fielding, he and Taylor left “well satisfied with the Lecture” and its “excellent Manner & Spirit” of delivery. The conflict in China was also reported in the church’s periodicals, through excerpts from local newspapers and under the heading of “wars and rumors of wars,” as a millenarian sign of the times. (“Foreign Intelligence,” London Dispatch, 25 Aug. 1839, 1; Fielding, Journal, 1840–1841, 129–130; “Wars and Rumors of Wars,” Times and Seasons, 1 Dec. 1840, 2:232; Editorial, Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1841, 2:350.)
London Dispatch. London. 1836–1839.
Fielding, Joseph. Journals, 1837–1859. CHL. MS 1567.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.