Footnotes
Extract of Hyrum Smith and JS, Letter, Nauvoo, IL, to Parley P. Pratt et al., Liverpool, England, 12 June 1842, in JS, Notation, 12 June 1842, photomechanical copy, CHL.
Smith, Joseph. Notation, 12 June 1842. Photomechanical copy. CHL. MS 6448.
In 2001, Dean Jessee’s research files contained a photocopy of the letter with Jessee’s notes, presumably inscribed in the 1970s, stating the original letter was in uncataloged JS material at the Church Historical Department.
See the full bibliographic entry for this letter in the CHL catalog.
Footnotes
Unlike most of the other apostles and missionaries, Pratt had relocated his family to England in fall 1840 and thus did not experience years of separation from his family. (See Givens and Grow, Parley P. Pratt, 177, 184–185.)
Givens, Terryl L., and Matthew J. Grow. Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
See “Address from the First Presidency,” Millennial Star, Nov. 1842, 3:115.
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
Concern about the adulterous actions of John C. Bennett and other men in Nauvoo appears to have led to a heightened concern about morality in the spring and summer of 1842, as well as a desire to more strictly admonish the residents of Nauvoo concerning morality. A case brought before the Nauvoo high council in January 1843, however, confirmed the allegations made in this 12 June letter to Pratt. On 25 January 1843, a British convert named Mrs. Pool and her recent husband, John Blazzard, were charged with adultery. Apparently Pool had separated from her first husband in England but had not obtained a divorce, and she had married Blazzard after immigrating to Nauvoo. In cases of spousal abandonment or a long period of separation between the couple, some individuals married again without getting a divorce from their first spouse. This practice was not uncommon and was not necessarily viewed as a moral failing. Witness statements before the high council indicate that JS and Hyrum Smith may have held differing opinions on whether a second marriage without a legal divorce constituted adultery. While Hyrum considered such actions adulterous, Gustavus Hills claimed that JS had advised the couple to marry. JS had officiated at the marriage of Newel Knight and Lydia Goldthwaite Bailey in Kirtland, Ohio, in November 1835 even though Bailey had not obtained a divorce from her first husband. (Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 25 Jan. 1843; JS, Journal, 24 Nov. 1835; Flake, “Development of Early Latter-day Saint Marriage Rites,” 79–84; see also Letter to Vilate Murray Kimball, 2 Mar. 1841; Letter to the Church and Others, 23 June 1842; Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, 14 May 1842, 77; and Minutes and Discourse, 9 June 1842.)
Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. CHL. LR 3102 22.
Flake, Kathleen. “The Development of Early Latter-day Saint Marriage Rites, 1831–53.” Journal of Mormon History 41, no. 1 (Jan. 2015): 77–102.
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Most of the people working on the Nauvoo temple were paid in goods rather than specie. By 1842, Nauvoo was functioning largely on a bartering system, with little specie available in the community. (See Trustee-in-Trust, Ledger A, 23–183; and JS, Nauvoo, IL, to “the Hands of the Stone Shop,” 21 Dec. 1842, in Clayton, Journal, 21 Dec. 1842.)
Trustees Land Books / Trustee-in-Trust, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Land Books, 1839–1845. 2 vols. CHL. MS 3437.
The emphasis on earning specie, or gold and silver coins, is indicative of the economic climate in the United States in the early 1840s. Several banks, including the State Bank of Illinois, had closed after a second financial panic in 1839. Banknotes were usually seen as unreliable, and banknotes from most American banks would not be accepted in England. (See Letter from Edward Hunter, 10 May 1842; and Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 574–575.)
Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. The Oxford History of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Several men who had immigrated to Nauvoo had left their families behind in England in hopes of earning money for their future passage but had unwittingly abandoned them to poverty. The postscript to this letter identifies three such men. While they were able to arrange to work on the Nauvoo temple to secure their families’ passage to America, JS and Hyrum Smith cautioned that this was not to be viewed as a precedent for other cases. Another English Saint, William Parr, had used his resources to travel to Nauvoo and found himself destitute and unable to provide for himself or aid his distant family. Writing on 17 June 1842, Heber C. Kimball noted the unhappiness among some of the English Saints, who had expected to be better provided for when they arrived in Nauvoo. Some, for instance, anticipated that homes would be available for them. The experiences of these immigrants likely led Hyrum to warn the Saints still in England about economic circumstances in Nauvoo and the church’s financial limitations. (Lyman Wight and James Brown, Nauvoo, IL, to Parley P. Pratt, Liverpool, England, 17 June 1842; Heber C. Kimball, Nauvoo, IL, to Parley P. Pratt, “Manchester or Liverpool,” England, 17 June 1842, Parley P. Pratt, Correspondence, CHL; Account of Meeting and Discourse, 18 June 1842.)
Pratt, Parley P. Correspondence, 1842–1855. CHL. MS 897.
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