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Willard Richards Copy of Abraham Manuscript, Early 1842–A [Abraham 1:1–2:18]
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A. Translation of Some ancient Records that have fallen
into our hands, from the Catacombs of
Egypt, purporting to be the writings
of abraham, while he was in Egypt,
called the Book of Abraham, written
by his own hand upon papyrus,
<P. 1> THE. BOOK. of A,BR,A,HAM.
In the Land of the Chaldeans, at the
Residence of my father, I, Abraham,
saw that it was needful for me
To obtain another place of Residence, and seeing <finding> there was greater happiness
and peace & Rest for me, I sought
for the blessings of the fathers & the
Right whereunto I should be ordained
to administer the same; having been
myself a follower of Righteousness, desiring
also to be one who possessed great
Knowledge, and to be a greater follower
of Righteousness and to possess a greater
Knowlegde, [p. [1]]
As discussed in the general introduction to the Book of Abraham manuscripts on this website, JS and his scribes Oliver Cowdery, William W. Phelps, Frederick G. Williams, and Warren Parrish spent considerable time in 1835 engaged in two separate yet related endeavors: a language-study effort that produced a number of Egyptian alphabet and grammar manuscripts; and the translation of the Book of Abraham, which yielded several Abraham manuscripts. However, their work related to the Book of Abraham did not appear in print until 1842. At least a portion, if not all, of JS’s available Abraham material was published at Nauvoo, Illinois, in three installments of the Times and Seasons in March and May of that year as the Book of Abraham.
3 Oct. 1806–3 Mar. 1850. Clerk, teacher, justice of the peace, lawyer, newspaper editor. Born at Wells, Rutland Co., Vermont. Son of William Cowdery and Rebecca Fuller. Raised Congregationalist. Moved to western New York and clerked at a store, ca. 1825–1828...
View Full Bio17 Feb. 1792–7 Mar. 1872. Writer, teacher, printer, newspaper editor, publisher, postmaster, lawyer. Born at Hanover, Morris Co., New Jersey. Son of Enon Phelps and Mehitabel Goldsmith. Moved to Homer, Cortland Co., New York, 1800. Married Sally Waterman,...
View Full Bio28 Oct. 1787–10 Oct. 1842. Ship’s pilot, teacher, physician, justice of the peace. Born at Suffield, Hartford Co., Connecticut. Son of William Wheeler Williams and Ruth Granger. Moved to Newburg, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, 1799. Practiced Thomsonian botanical system...
View Full Bio10 Jan. 1803–3 Jan. 1877. Clergyman, gardener. Born in New York. Son of John Parrish and Ruth Farr. Married first Elizabeth (Betsey) Patten of Westmoreland Co., New Hampshire, ca. 1822. Lived at Alexandria, Jefferson Co., New York, 1830. Purchased land at...
View Full BioPrincipal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, LDS church purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas. Served as church headquarters, 1839...
More InfoThe present Willard Richards document, one of three Abraham texts in Richards’s handwriting, was likely produced sometime between late 1841 and early 1842, and originally consisted of passages currently designated Abraham 1:1−2:18. It is incomplete due to a missing page 4, apparently representing the current Abraham 1:9b−12a. This document may have been copied from an earlier, though unknown, manuscript or set of manuscripts. It exhibits certain characteristics—editorial markings, paragraphing, spelling, and the use of ampersands—indicating that it was probably prepared as a printer’s manuscript for the first installment of the Book of Abraham published on 1 March 1842 (Hauglid, Textual History of the Book of Abraham, 150–151).
24 June 1804–11 Mar. 1854. Teacher, lecturer, doctor, clerk, printer, editor, postmaster. Born at Hopkinton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts. Son of Joseph Richards and Rhoda Howe. Moved to Richmond, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts, 1813. Moved to Chatham, Columbia...
View Full BioRichards’s transcript apparently consisted of thirteen lined sheets, one of which, as noted, has been lost. The original punctuation was inconsistent, there were many omitted letters, and Richards seems to have edited his own writing. Additional editing was evidently done by an unknown person. Unlike the Kirtland Abrahamic manuscripts from 1835, this manuscript does not feature hieratic Egyptian characters in the left margin even though it was probably derived from such earlier documents. The back side of page two contains the explanation of Facsimile 1.
24 June 1804–11 Mar. 1854. Teacher, lecturer, doctor, clerk, printer, editor, postmaster. Born at Hopkinton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts. Son of Joseph Richards and Rhoda Howe. Moved to Richmond, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts, 1813. Moved to Chatham, Columbia...
View Full BioLocated ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...
More InfoRichards’s transcript was likely part of the “Egyptian Grammar” that was listed on a manifest compiled by Willard Richards and Thomas Bullock as they prepared to transport church documents westward in 1846 (“Schedule of Church Records. Nauvoo 1846,” [1]; “Historian’s Office Catalogue 1858,” 1, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL). For more information on this document, see Hauglid , Textual History of the Book of Abraham, 22, 84–85.
24 June 1804–11 Mar. 1854. Teacher, lecturer, doctor, clerk, printer, editor, postmaster. Born at Hopkinton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts. Son of Joseph Richards and Rhoda Howe. Moved to Richmond, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts, 1813. Moved to Chatham, Columbia...
View Full BioNote: The transcript of the Book of Abraham manuscript presented here is used with permission of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. It was published earlier, with some differences in style, in Brian M. Hauglid, A Textual History of the Book of Abraham: Manuscripts and Editions (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2010), 152–181.
Book of Abraham Manuscript, Nauvoo, IL, early 1842; handwriting of Willard Richards; fifteen pages; Book of Abraham Manuscripts, ca. 1837–1841, CHL.
Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, LDS church purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas. Served as church headquarters, 1839...
More Info24 June 1804–11 Mar. 1854. Teacher, lecturer, doctor, clerk, printer, editor, postmaster. Born at Hopkinton, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts. Son of Joseph Richards and Rhoda Howe. Moved to Richmond, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts, 1813. Moved to Chatham, Columbia...
View Full BioNote: The transcript of the Book of Abraham manuscript presented here is used with permission of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. It was published earlier, with some differences in style, in Brian M. Hauglid, A Textual History of the Book of Abraham: Manuscripts and Editions (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2010), 152–181.
