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Letter from Thomas Ward and Hiram Clark, 16 March 1843

Source Note

and , Letter, , Lancashire, England, to the (including JS) and , , Hancock Co., IL, 16 Mar. 1843; handwriting of ; signatures of and ; four pages; Sidney Rigdon, Collection, CHL. Includes address, postal stamps, and dockets.
Bifolium measuring 8¾ × 7¼ inches (22 × 18 cm). An embossment reading “Superfine Bath” appears in the upper left corner of the recto of the first leaf. The document was trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, sealed with a red adhesive wafer, and postmarked. It was later refolded for filing.
, who served as JS’s scribe from December 1841 until JS’s death in June 1844 and served as church historian from December 1842 until his own death in March 1854, docketed the letter. , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844 and as clerk to the church historian and recorder from 1845 to 1865, also added a docket. The document was listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office (now CHL) circa 1904. By the early twentieth century, the letter was included in a collection of materials related to in the Church Historian’s Office. The letter’s early dockets, its listing in a circa 1904 inventory, and its inclusion in the Sidney Rigdon Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841 and 21 Dec. 1842; Orson Spencer, “Death of Our Beloved Brother Willard Richards,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 16 Mar. 1854, [2].

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  2. [2]

    Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456, 458; Woodruff, Journal, 22 Jan. 1865.

    Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.

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

  3. [3]

    “Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, [3], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.

  4. [4]

    See the full bibliographic entry for Sidney Rigdon, Collection, 1831–1858, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 16 March 1843, and wrote a letter from , England, to the and the in , Illinois, to convey information pertaining to the emigration of Latter-day Saints from to Nauvoo. Ward was the of the in Europe; Clark was one of Ward’s counselors and was responsible for overseeing emigration. The two had written a letter to the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on 1 March 1843 seeking advice on church publications in England.
The logistics of getting Saints from to had been of concern to church leaders for a few years. In 1841, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles instructed those desiring to move to the to work through the church’s emigration agent in England rather than going on their own and to travel through rather than . The apostles supplemented this direction in 1842 with a plan to generate funds for emigration. According to this plan, church members in England would “collect as great an amount of Cotton, Linen, and woollen Goods; Silks, Cutlery, Hardware” as they could and send them to Nauvoo. The apostles would pay the British Saints for these goods by providing them with land, housing, cattle, and other kinds of property when the emigrants reached Nauvoo. The apostles would also use proceeds from the sale of the goods to buy “flour, meat and all things necessary for a sea voyage” at lower prices than those in England and send them to the British Saints, who would then be able to emigrate “at a cheaper rate.”
It is unclear how extensively the Twelve’s plan was put into place, but it may have been hindered by tariffs in both and the . and stated that they were having difficulty getting ships and captains to take Saints to , the main port to which British church members migrated, because of reports that captains had to enter into bonds to guarantee that their passengers did not become wards of Louisiana after arriving there. To induce ship captains to bring Saints to New Orleans, Ward and Clark proposed that Clark be stationed in New Orleans to serve as a broker to find cargos of cotton for the ships to take back to England. Ward and Clark also requested that church leaders send someone to help them oversee the Saints’ emigration from England.
wrote the letter and signed it, after which signed it. They then mailed it from on 18 March 1843, and it arrived by ship in on 19 April. The letter reached by mid-May, when it was read in a meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. JS presumably read the letter around the same time. No reply has been located, but the apostles did vote to send to to serve as both the presiding elder and the overseer of emigration. After Hedlock’s arrival, Ward and Clark served as his counselors. Ward continued to serve as editor of the Millennial Star, while Clark continued to coordinate emigration efforts in England.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Parley P. Pratt, “Farewell Address to Our Readers and Patrons,” Millennial Star, Oct. 1842, 3:110; Hiram Clark, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 1 June 1844, 5:558–559.

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

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  2. [2]

    Letter from Thomas Ward and Hiram Clark, 1 Mar. 1843.

  3. [3]

    Brigham Young et al., “An Epistle of the Twelve,” Millennial Star, Apr. 1841, 1:309–312.

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

  4. [4]

    Brigham Young et al., “An Epistle of the Twelve,” Times and Seasons, 1 Apr. 1842, 3:737; see also Brigham Young et al., “An Epistle of the Twelve,” Millennial Star, June 1842, 3:18–19.

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

  5. [5]

    The United States had tariffs to protect textile manufacturers in its northeastern states, while England had the Corn Laws, which placed duties on the importation of grain. (Irwin and Temin, “Antebellum Tariff on Cotton Textiles Revisited,” 778–780; Sharp, “Rise and Fall of British Wheat Protection,” 77–79.)

    Irwin, Douglas A., and Peter Temin. “The Antebellum Tariff on Cotton Textiles Revisited.” Journal of Economic History 61, no. 3 (Sept. 2001): 777–798.

    Sharp, Paul. “‘1846 and All That’: The Rise and Fall of British Wheat Protection in the Nineteenth Century.” Agricultural History Review 58, no. 1 (June 2010): 76–94.

  6. [6]

    Notwithstanding these problems, five ships containing Latter-day Saints sailed from England in late 1842 and early 1843. (Thomas Ward, “To the Saints in Europe,” Millennial Star, Nov. 1842, 3:125; Editorial, Millennial Star, Jan. 1843, 3:160.)

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

  7. [7]

    Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Minutes, 23 May 1843.

    Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Minutes, 1840–1844. CHL.

  8. [8]

    “Editorial,” Millennial Star, Oct. 1843, 4:94–95; Hiram Clark, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 1 June 1844, 5:558–559.

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

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

Page [1]

. March 16th. 1843.
To the of the ; and to the .
Beloved Brethren,
Having of late been much troubled and perplexed in the Emigration business, owing to the difficulty of obtaining Ships to take passengers; which has arisen from various reports that have been in circulation respecting increased hospital money at , as also that the Captains would have to enter into bonds to guarantee that the Emigrants do not become chargeable on the State, these reports whether true or false have had the effect of scaring away many captains, who otherwise would have been glad to take passengers— and also of annoying and causing to suffer much, many of the Saints whose means were small, by compelling <​them​> to wait. [p. [1]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Thomas Ward and Hiram Clark, 16 March 1843
ID #
1507
Total Pages
4
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:57–62
Handwriting on This Page
  • Thomas Ward

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    In 1842, the Louisiana state treasurer recommended “the passage of a law laying a tax on strangers coming into the state, for the support of the hospitals and other charitable institutions to which strangers have access.” Apostle John Taylor also stated in a meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles that, according to newspaper reports, “the Brittish Parliament had taken prohibitory measures agai[n]st Emigration.” (“Report of the State Treasurer,” Baton Rouge [LA] Gazette, 5 Feb. 1842, [2]; Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Minutes, 11 May 1843.)

    Baton Rouge Gazette. Baton Rouge, LA. 1841–1843.

    Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Minutes, 1840–1844. CHL.

  2. [2]

    In a letter published in the November 1842 issue of the Millennial Star, Ward noted reports that may have been similar to the reports he referred to here. According to Ward, the migration of Saints from England to Nauvoo seemed to “rouse the ire” of Liverpool residents, leading to local newspaper reports “teem[ing] with inuendoes, cautions, histories, &c. of the Mormon delusion.” (Thomas Ward, “To the Saints in Europe,” Millennial Star, Nov. 1842, 3:125.)

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

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