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Letter from Lorenzo Snow, 10 October 1842

Source Note

, Letter, London, Middlesex and Surrey counties, England, to JS, [Nauvoo, Hancock Co., IL], 10 Oct. 1842. Featured version copied [ca. 10 Oct. 1842] in Lorenzo Snow, Letterbook, pp. [177]–[183]; handwriting of ; CHL.
Lorenzo Snow, Letterbook, [1841–1843, 1848]; handwriting of ; 211 pages; CHL. Included archival marking; includes architectural drawing.
Small blank book measuring 6⅜ × 3¾ × 1 inches (16 × 10 × 3 cm). The text block consists of 110 leaves, including 2 leaves of unevenly cut ledger paper that were tipped into the volume and a partially excised or torn leaf. The volume is bound in brown leather with a metal clasp. inscribed the letterbook with black and blue ink, though on the front inside cover he recorded in graphite the date of his departure from , Illinois, and the date of his arrival in . Snow primarily used the volume from 1841 to 1842 to copy letters, licenses, minutes, notes, and journal entries. Most of the items copied into the letterbook appear to date from this period; however, one of the undated letters contextually seems to be from 1839, and the licenses date from 1840 with the exception of an 1837 elder’s license. The licenses and earlier letter appear to have been copied into the volume in 1841. Sometime in 1843 or shortly thereafter, Snow copied a letter of recommendation for Snow to the First Presidency into the volume. Around March 1848, Snow copied a letter addressed to an unidentified cousin into the book.
, ’s sister, likely had access to the volume in the early 1880s when she was preparing a biography of him, as a few letters from the letterbook were reproduced in the biography in a heavily revised form. The volume apparently remained in the custody of Lorenzo Snow’s descendants until 1965, when William K. Mordock Jr., Snow’s great-grandson, donated the volume to W. Paul Summerhays, the director of the Oakland Temple Bureau of Information. Later that year, Summerhays forwarded the letterbook to the Church Historian’s Office (now CHL).

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See, for example, Smith, Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, 48–51, 58–59.

    Snow, Eliza R. Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1884.

  2. [2]

    See the full bibliographic entry for Lorenzo Snow, Letterbook, in the CHL catalog; and Cowan and Larsen, Oakland Temple, 161.

    Cowan, Richard O., and Robert G. Larsen. The Oakland Temple: Portal to Eternity. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2014.

Historical Introduction

On 10 October 1842, wrote a letter from , England, to JS at , Illinois, to report on the progress of his missionary labors. Snow explained to JS that he felt obligated to report on his stewardship, and he accordingly described his mission from April to October 1842. He previously sent other reports of his labors to in November 1841 and April 1842.
left in July 1840, arriving in in October. Following short stints preaching in , , Birmingham, and Wolverhampton, Snow arrived in in February 1841 to take charge of the London of the . At the time he was appointed to preside, the London conference included much of the southeastern part of England, with in London, Ipswich, Woolwich, and Bedford. The total number of church members in the area was less than one hundred, with only forty-six Latter-day Saints in London itself. Indeed, the earliest missionaries to the city found it to be a challenging place to spread the gospel. For example, recorded in his journal, “London is the hardest place I ever visited for esstablishing the gospel.” In April 1841, Snow was also appointed to serve as a counselor to , who had replaced as president of the British mission. Snow continued to preside over the London conference throughout 1841 and 1842. By the end of 1841, the membership in London had grown to 140, and in early 1842 Snow reported that the London conference had grown to nearly 400 members, with new converts being daily.
In his 10 October 1842 letter to JS, reported on his attendance at the British mission’s general conference in May 1842 and his subsequent return to with and . Despite challenges from the press and the Protestant Christian clergy, Snow reported several significant accomplishments during summer 1842. In July 1842, for instance, he organized a branch at Marylebone and another at Clerkenwell to accommodate the growing numbers of Saints in London. Snow also informed JS that after several months of effort, he had arranged for two copies of the Book of Mormon to be presented to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on or around 10 October 1842. Snow closed the letter asking JS’s permission to return to around the beginning of January.
The letter sent to JS is apparently not extant. Presumably after inscribing the letter, Snow copied it into his personal letterbook, the source of the text featured here. It is unclear whether JS ever received the letter.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Lorenzo Snow, London, England, to Brigham Young, Nauvoo, IL, 26 Nov. 1841, Brigham Young Office Files, CHL. Snow’s April 1842 letter to Brigham Young is not extant.

    Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1.

  2. [2]

    In both a notation on the inside cover of his letterbook and an 1841 letter, Snow recorded his arrival date as 22 October 1840. (Notation in Lorenzo Snow, Letterbook, flyleaf; Note, in JS Letterbook 2, p. 153; Lorenzo Snow, London, England, to “E. McConougley,” [between late 1840 and early 1841], in Lorenzo Snow, Letterbook, [15].)

    Snow, Lorenzo. Letterbook, ca. 1839–1846. CHL.

  3. [3]

    Lorenzo Snow, Journal and Letterbook, 40–42; Lorenzo Snow, Journal Entry, 6 Mar. 1841, in Lorenzo Snow, Letterbook, [32]–[33]; Woodruff, Journal, 11 and 14 Feb. 1841.

    Snow, Lorenzo. Journal and Letterbook, 1836–1845. Lorenzo Snow, Journals, 1836–1845, 1872. CHL.

    Snow, Lorenzo. Letterbook, ca. 1839–1846. CHL.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  4. [4]

    Lorenzo Snow, London, England, to Parley P. Pratt, 25 May 1841, in Millennial Star, June 1841, 2:31–32.

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

  5. [5]

    Lorenzo Snow, London, England, to Parley P. Pratt, 21 Aug. 1841, in Lorenzo Snow, Letterbook, [63].

    Snow, Lorenzo. Letterbook, ca. 1839–1846. CHL.

  6. [6]

    Woodruff, Journal, 2 Sept. 1840; Allen et al., Men with a Mission, 181–197.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    Allen, James B., Ronald K. Esplin, and David J. Whittaker. Men with a Mission, 1837–1841: The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the British Isles. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1992.

  7. [7]

    Brigham Young et al., “An Epistle of the Twelve,” Millennial Star, Apr. 1841, 1:311.

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

  8. [8]

    Lorenzo Snow, Journal Entry, 21 Dec. 1841, in Lorenzo Snow, Letterbook, [81]; Lorenzo Snow, London, England, to “Dear Aunt,” 6 Feb. 1842, in Lorenzo Snow, Letterbook, [130].

    Snow, Lorenzo. Letterbook, ca. 1839–1846. CHL.

  9. [9]

    See “General Conference,” Millennial Star, June 1842, 3:28–32.

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

  10. [10]

    Snow had been contemplating returning to Nauvoo since at least August, when he had written to Levi Richards that he was “perfectly relieved from any further responsibility and a free man, ready to go to Zion as soon as I can get the means.” Snow hoped that he would be able to leave for Nauvoo in the “latter part of Sept. or fore part of Oct.,” provided that Pratt did not object. (Lorenzo Snow, Bedford, England, to Levi Richards, Liverpool, England, 12 Aug. 1842, Levi Richards, Papers, CHL, underlining in original.)

    Richards, Levi. Papers, 1837–1867. CHL.

Page [180]

as pressents to the her Majesty and his Royal Highness, left with me by , I have had the pleasure of delivering to her Majesty and his Royal Highness Prince Albert through the peliteness of Sir Henry Wheatl[e]y We pray their eyes may be opened so they may comprehend their contents— The Press and Pulpit here are more busy now than ever in exerting their unhallowed influence to retard or destroy the work of the Lord but their falsehoods teem forth without effect. only as they make more blind those who have eyes, yet see not because of iniquity dewlling in their hearts, and as they excite the wise and honest hearted to step forward and hear and judge for themselves. [p. [180]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Lorenzo Snow, 10 October 1842
ID #
13303
Total Pages
7
Print Volume Location
JSP, D11:135–141
Handwriting on This Page
  • Lorenzo Snow

Footnotes

  1. [9]

    It is unclear when or why Young determined to prepare the two volumes for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, but it may have had to do with the direction in a January 1841 revelation for the apostles to sound the warning voice to the “kings and Authorities” of the earth. The volume for the queen was specially bound in purple morocco leather and included gold lettering reading “To Queen Victoria. 1841” on the front cover and “Presented by Brigham Young” on the back cover. Richards likely gave the copies of the book to Snow sometime between 17 July and about 5 August 1841, when Richards visited London. Richards’s diary indicates that he was with Snow between 17 and 22 July. Three days later, on 25 July, Richards indicated that he “went to the Queens Palace,” perhaps hoping to deliver the books to Queen Victoria at that time. On 15 February 1842, Snow wrote to Richards, “The book’s of Mormon are still remaining as they were left, no way has opened by which I could get them delivered.” On or around 10 October 1842, Snow sent the two copies of the Book of Mormon to Sir Henry Wheatley along with a letter requesting that Wheatley deliver the books “to her Majesty and his Royal Highness.” (Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124:3, 5, 11, 16, 107]; Book of Mormon, 1841 ed., Royal Collection, London; Levi Richards, Journal, 17 July–5 Aug. 1841; Lorenzo Snow, London, England, to Levi Richards, Manchester, England, 12 Feb. 1842, Levi Richards, Papers, CHL; Lorenzo Snow, [London, England], to Sir Henry Wheatley, 10 Oct. 1842, in Lorenzo Snow, Letterbook, [176].)

    The Book of Mormon, 1st European ed. Liverpool: Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Parley P. Pratt, 1841.The Book of Mormon. 4th ed. Nauvoo, IL: Joseph Smith, 1842.

    Richards, Levi. Journals, 1840–1853. Levi Richards, Papers, 1837–1867. CHL. MS 1284, box 1.

    Richards, Levi. Papers, 1837–1867. CHL.

    Snow, Lorenzo. Letterbook, ca. 1839–1846. CHL.

  2. [10]

    Wheatley was “keeper of her Majesty’s Privy-Purse” in 1842, making him responsible for the financial management of the royal household. (Sketches of Her Majesty’s Household, 27–29.)

    Sketches of Her Majesty’s Household: Interspersed with Historical Notes, Political Comments, and Critical Remarks. . . . London: William Strange, 1848.

  3. [11]

    In London during summer 1842, Anglican clergyman Henry Caswall published a stinging critique of JS titled The City of the Mormons. Concerned about the number of British citizens who had converted to the church and emigrated to Nauvoo, Caswall had visited Nauvoo in April 1842. Purportedly, he showed JS a copy of a Greek psalter, which JS identified as “a dictionary of Egyptian Hieroglyphics.” Caswall used the story to argue that JS was defrauding those who followed him. The British press praised Caswall’s book and advertised it repeatedly during September and October 1842. (Caswall, City of the Mormons, 35–37; “The City of the Mormons,” Atlas [London], 13 Aug. 1842, 528; “The City of the Mormons,” Evening Mail [London], 2 Sept. 1842, 7; “The Mormonite Prophet,” Berkshire Chronicle [Reading, England], 10 Sept. 1842, [4]; “The City of the Mormons,” Clare Journal and Ennis [Ireland] Advertiser, 12 Sept. 1842, [4]; “The Mormon Imposture,” West of England Conservative [Devonport and Plymouth, England], 14 Sept. 1842, [4]; Foster, “Henry Caswall,” 145–159.)

    Caswall, Henry. The City of the Mormons; or, Three Days at Nauvoo, in 1842. London: J. G. F. and J. Rivington, 1842.

    Atlas. London. 1826–1869.

    Evening Mail. London. 1802–1867.

    Berkshire Chronicle, Windsor Herald, and General Advertiser for the Counties of Bucks, Oxon, Hants, Surrey, Middlesex, and Wilts. Reading, England. 1833–1904.

    The Clare Journal, and Ennis Advertiser. Ennis, Ireland. 1778–1917.

    West of England Conservative, and Plymouth and Devonport Advertiser. Devonport and Plymouth, England. 1836–1852.

    Foster, Craig L. “Henry Caswall: Anti-Mormon Extraordinaire.” BYU Studies 35 no. 4 (Oct. 1995): 144–159.

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