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Account and Pay Order from Parley P. Pratt and Amos Fielding, 16 September 1842
Source Note
Source Note
and , Account and Pay Order, , Lancashire, England, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 16 Sept. 1842; handwriting of ; signatures of and ; witnessed by and ; two pages; JS Collection, CHL.
Single leaf, measuring 9⅛ × 7⅜ inches (23 × 19 cm). The leaf is cut along the right side of the recto, suggesting that it may have originally been part of a larger sheet. The leaf was folded to pocket size, possibly for personal delivery.
The document was apparently received by JS in , Illinois, and became a part of church records, presumably having remained in continuous institutional custody. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL).
Footnotes
- [1]
See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
On 16 September 1842, and emigration agent wrote an account and a pay order in , England, and addressed them to JS in , Illinois. Pratt and Fielding sent the account and order to request payment for goods Fielding had transported from Liverpool to Nauvoo earlier that year. Because perishable goods cost less in the , British sea merchants contracted with Pratt and Fielding around March 1842 to purchase flour and wheat that could then be used to supply their ships for the following fall and winter. In exchange, the merchants advanced $3,000 in gold to Pratt and Fielding. The two men used $2,000 to purchase “Wollens, Merinoes, Delanes [delaines], Muslins, and the most sale[a]ble goods . . . in the Market” that could then be exchanged for flour and wheat in Nauvoo. They may have used the remaining $1,000 to finance the shipping of these goods and other supplies to Nauvoo. Fielding transported the goods as he traveled with a group of emigrating Latter-day Saints, arriving in Nauvoo in spring 1842. Following a short stay, he returned to Liverpool in early September, presumably with the purchased flour and wheat.
Once returned to , he and made out the following account and pay order for JS, as church , detailing the transportation costs of bringing the purchased goods to for barter and trade. The order requested that most of the payment be made in stock in the . Fellow British mission leaders and witnessed the document, affirming the truthfulness of the information therein. The lack of addressing suggests that the letter traveled to Nauvoo by means of a courier or that the letter originally was enclosed in a wrapper or envelope that is no longer extant. The letter likely was sent to Nauvoo in the care of one of the three emigrating companies that left Liverpool for Nauvoo during September 1842, making it likely that the letter arrived in Nauvoo sometime between 7 December 1842 and April 1843.
Footnotes
- [1]
According to Pratt, the cost of provisions in Nauvoo was, on average, one sixth the cost of provisions in England in the early 1840s. (Letter from Parley P. Pratt, 4 Dec. 1841.)
- [2]
- [3]
Fielding and a group of approximately 230 emigrants left Liverpool on the Hanover on 12 March 1842 and arrived in Nauvoo on 14 May. (Letter from Parley P. Pratt, 13 Mar. 1842; “Emigration,” Millennial Star, Mar. 1842, 2:176; JS, Journal, 14 May 1842.)
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
- [4]
A 19 January 1841 revelation instructed the Saints to construct a building to be known as the Nauvoo House that could function as a boardinghouse “for the weary traveller.” The revelation provided for the establishment of a “quorum” composed of George Miller, Lyman Wight, John Snider, and Peter Haws, who were authorized to sell stock in the house. On 23 February 1841, the state of Illinois passed a law incorporating the “Nauvoo House Association,” authorizing the organization to sell stock subscriptions for the house to the amount of $150,000. The establishment of such houses and associations was common among other Illinois towns of the period. (Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124:60, 62]; An Act to Incorporate the Nauvoo House Association [23 Feb. 1841], Laws of the State of Illinois [1840–1841], p. 131, sec. 3; see also An Act to Incorporate the Commerce Hotel Company [28 Feb. 1839], Incorporation Laws of the State of Illinois, pp. 152–154; An Act to Incorporate the New Greenfield Hotel Company, in Greene County [1 Mar. 1839], Incorporation Laws of the State of Illinois, pp. 180–183; and An Act to Incorporate the Greenville Hotel Company [23 Feb. 1841], Laws of the State of Illinois [1840–1841], pp. 132–134.)
Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835. Vandalia, IL: J. Y. Sawyer, 1835.
Incorporation Laws of the State of Illinois; Passed at a Session of the General Assembly, Begun and Held at Vandalia the 6th Day of December, 1836. Vandalia, IL; William Walters, 1837.
- [5]
Given the nature of the letter and Pratt’s request for JS to pay the detailed funds for stock in the Nauvoo House Association to John Snider—who had been sent to England to collect funds for the Nauvoo temple and the association—it is most likely that Pratt sent the letter through Snider. Snider’s company left Liverpool on 28 September 1842 and arrived in Nauvoo on 23 January 1843. Orson Hyde’s emigrating company arrived in Nauvoo on 7 December 1842. The Levi Richards company arrived in St. Louis sometime during November or December 1842 and wintered there until April 1843, when it finished the journey to Nauvoo. (Historical Introduction to Letter from Parley P. Pratt, between 23 and 27 Sept. 1842; Brigham Young et al., “An Epistle of the Twelve,” Times and Seasons, 1 Apr. 1842, 3:736–737; JS, Journal, 7 Dec. 1842; 23 Jan. 1843; 12 Apr. 1843.)
, Sep. 16th. 1842.
To President Joseph Smith.
Account of Cash Expenditures for Goods, delivered by to President Joseph Smith, in the City of , May. 1842.
| $ | |
| First Cost—— | 1000.0 |
| Packing Cases and Cartage— | 10.0 |
| Duty and Policy at | 270.62½ |
| Freight from to | 3.12½ |
| 1283.75 | |
| 25 per cent on the above | 320.93¾ |
| 1604.68¾ |
The above Sum is the actual amount of Gold which we have expended for the Goods, with the addition of 25 per cent for profit, trouble, use of the money and risks, which we think will be a sufficient compensation to us, and will not be unjust towards you.
Dear Brother Joseph Smith you will please pay the following sums to , to be accedited as stock to the for us.
Namely, Six hundred and Twenty-five dollars, for , and Six hundred and Twenty-five dollars for
The remaining Sum, Three hundred and fifty-four dollars, sixty eight cents, and [p. [1]]
Document Information
Document Information
Footnotes
Footnotes
Thomas Ward handwriting begins.
- [1]
In early April 1841, Fielding was appointed to be the “agent of the church, to superintend the fitting out of the Saints from Liverpool to America.” He was to act “under the instructions of P[arley] P. Pratt.” The decision came in response to several British members having been “robbed and cheated out of nearly all they had” by trying to arrange their own emigration to the United States. (Woodruff, Journal, 2 Apr. 1841; Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Minutes, 2 Apr. 1841; Brigham Young et al., “An Epistle of the Twelve,” Millennial Star, Apr. 1841, 1:311.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Minutes, 1840–1844. CHL.
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
- [2]
At New Orleans, Fielding’s company arranged for passage to St. Louis on a steamboat named the General Pratt. (Palmer, Reminiscences, 66.)
Palmer, James. Reminiscences, ca. 1884–1898. CHL.
- [3]
Snider, who was in England, was the secretary of the Nauvoo House Association and signed the stock certificates for the association. Snider had been appointed by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to serve a mission to England to collect funds for the Nauvoo temple. (Nauvoo House Association, Stock Certificate, 11 Feb. 1841, CHL; Brigham Young et al., “An Epistle of the Twelve,” Times and Seasons, 1 Apr. 1842, 3:736–737; JS, Journal, 23 Jan. 1843.)
Nauvoo House Association. Stock Certificate, 11 Feb. 1841. CHL.