In 1863, acclaimed British writer Charles Dickens boarded a New York–bound emigrant ship docked at Liverpool. He was not a passenger but an observer; the subjects of his study were more than eight hundred Latter-day Saint emigrants aboard the ship … Continued
By 1840 the spirit of gathering to America was beginning to excite the British Saints. Even though the official call to gather did not come from Church headquarters until that August, many British Saints had anticipated it and were ready to go. Mission leaders were concerned, however, thinking that perhaps the emigration was premature, but on April 15 they finally decided to allow it.
A number of Saints decided to go on their own, without waiting for organized companies. Others organized themselves into companies, even before the Church emigration agency was established. The first of these self-organized companies, some forty-one Saints, left Liverpool on 6 June 1840, under the leadership of John Moon. The letter which follows is John Moon’s account of that voyage written to William Clayton, and is, so far as we know, the earliest document available telling the story of a trans- Atlantic voyage of Mormon emigrants.
The story of the populating of America by the poor and oppressed peoples of lands across the seas is one of the great sagas of the nineteenth century. During that period the United States grew from about five and one-half … Continued
The thousands of immigrants drawn to Nauvoo arrived with expectations and concerns. For many, settling there would afford the first opportunity to meet the Prophet and hear his discourses—a spiritual highlight of their lives. The Saints also looked forward to the promised temple blessings. They gathered to help build the temple and to receive their endowments and sealings. But sacrifices for religious benefits were accompanied by economic concerns. Many Saints, especially those from the British Isles, left their homelands expecting financial betterment. Even relocating Americans expressed hopes that Nauvoo’s prosperity would benefit their own families. Some Latter-day Saints hesitated to respond to the spirit of the gathering because of the unknowns of the Mississippi frontier. Could they recover losses from selling their established farms or businesses? Was the cost of moving across an ocean or half a continent worthwhile?
The Call of Zion consists of three kinds of material. First is Dennis’s historical narrative of the emigration experience of this particular group. Initial plans called for the entire Welsh contingent of 326 to travel as one party, but they were divided in two when the ship they obtained was unable to accommodate all of them. Dennis describes the voyage of the 249-member Welsh company on the Buena Vista in frank detail, including the challenges posed by seasickness, interpersonal conflicts, and the apostasy of a small faction of the group. He outlines more briefly the experience of the seventy-seven Welsh emigrants who sailed soon after on the Hartley, along with English, Scottish, and Irish coreligionists, and who were instrumental in the conversion of four of the ship’s crew. On the way up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to Council Bluffs in riverboats, both groups were engulfed in the cholera epidemic that raged up and down the river that year. The survivors were reunited at Council Bluffs for two months, then divided by the differences in their ability to undertake the overland journey to Utah. Eighty-four proceeded onward that year with the George A. Smith company; 113 became the nucleus of a Welsh-language branch of the Church in the Council Bluffs area; others remained in the vicinity of St. Louis until 1852, when William Morgan led a mostly Welsh company from Council Bluffs to Salt Lake City. Dennis’s eighty-page narrative is informative and well-organized.
For most of the nineteenth century the British Mission was the largest mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Between 1837, when Joseph Smith authorized Heber C. Kimball to lead the first LDS missionary entourage to Britain, and 1870, more people were baptized in the British Mission than in any other mission of the Church, and more Latter-day Saints emigrated to Utah from the British Isles than from any other place in the world. During the thirty-three years from 1837 through 1869, 95,232 people were baptized in the British Mission, an average of 2,886 per year. After Mormon emigration to America began in 1840, an average of 935 Saints left the British Isles every year in Church-sponsored parties. By 1870, a total of 28,063 people had come to America this way, and numerous others had come on their own in smaller groups. There were by this time 73,747 members of the Church in the nine stakes of Utah and southeast Idaho. Most were British immigrants or their offspring, a group that obviously provided considerable strength to the Church, comprising in most localities a majority of the adult Saints.
In 1987, BYU Studies published two special issues on the 150-year history of the LDS Church in Great Britain. Robert D. Hales, then Presiding Bishop of the Church, presented these remarks on January 17, 1987, at a symposium at BYU, “The Church in the British Isles, 1837-1987.” He surveys the role of Great Britain in world history, looks at converts to the Church in the 1800s, and tells the stories of several of his own English ancestors who immigrated to the United States and joined the Church. Here is an excerpt from his remarks. The full article is available to download.
The celebration of 150 years of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the British Isles provides an opportunity to recognize the contribution of the English to the laying of the foundation for the restoration of the gospel in the last days and the divine intervention in its history.
From that damp and foggy island in Western Europe sprang a tenacity for truth and freedom whose influence has been felt around the world. The influence of modern English is remarkable. The world-wide spread of the language has no precedent. Spanish and French, Arabic and Turkish, Latin and Greek have served their turns as international languages, but none has come near to rivaling English. Today, 330 million people throughout the world speak it as a mother tongue. Add to this those who use English as a second language, and you approach one billion English speakers. It is spoken in more countries than any other language. It is the language of international shipping and air travel, of science and diplomacy. How has this happened? Partly through the power of Britain in the nineteenth century and of America in the twentieth.
We now recognize the great and significant contribution the English-speaking peoples of the world have made in the restoration of true Christianity to the earth, motivated by their indomitable pursuit for truth and religious liberty. Despite difficult financial times in Kirtland, the Prophet, through revelation, called the first missionaries to England. The missionaries left their Kirtland homes on 13 June 1837 and landed in Liverpool on 19 July. Thus commenced the restoration of the true gospel in the British Isles, and coincidentally in the same year that Victoria came to the throne. In this year of 1987, we celebrate 150 years of missionary labors among those great people.
These stories of pilgrims, converts, pioneers, child immigrants, and pioneer missionaries show the devotion, sacrifice, and dedication of our forebears. Is anything less required of us to meet today’s challenges and endure to the end?
There is currently no description for this title. One will be added shortly.
There is currently no description for this title. One will be added shortly.
Thousands of converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints migrated to Nauvoo in the years 1840 to 1846. They brought skills to Nauvoo which helped establish the city, while other skills such as textile work were not useful on the American frontier. Relatively few British converts were thoroughly involved in the political or religious affairs of the city; that would change as the Saints moved to Utah. Jensen also discusses land and housing issues faced by the transplanted Saints.
