Footnotes
John Smith and Clarissa Lyman Smith, Kirtland, OH, to George A. Smith, Shinnston, VA, 1 Jan. 1838, George Albert Smith, Papers, CHL; Hepzibah Richards, Kirtland, OH, to Willard Richards, Bedford, England, 18–19 Jan. 1838, Willard Richards, Papers, CHL.
Smith, George Albert. Papers, 1834–1877. CHL. MS 1322.
Richards, Willard. Journals and Papers, 1821–1854. CHL.
The letter references the enclosure of the motto, stating that the motto was transcribed in the Scriptory Book. This indicates that the Scriptory Book, which begins in and is almost entirely in Robinson’s handwriting, was started sometime between Robinson’s arrival in Far West on 28 March and JS’s composition of the letter on 29 March. Although Robinson began the book at this time, with an account of JS’s arrival in Far West and a copy of the motto, he apparently did not add anything further to the book until the middle of April, at the time of the excommunications of Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer. The title page of the Scriptory Book is dated 12 April 1838, the date of Cowdery’s church trial, and editorial notes between the various documents that Robinson transcribed into the book explain how the events documented in the various transcripts led up to the excommunications of Cowdery and Whitmer. (JS, Journal, Mar.–Sept. 1838, pp. 15–32.)
See Psalm 2:7; and Old Testament Revision 1, p. 1 [Moses 1:4].
See 2 Kings 2:11.
George W. Robinson was married to Rigdon’s daughter Athalia. JS’s multivolume manuscript history recounts that JS left the Rigdon family at Terre Haute, Indiana, about twenty miles east, not west, of Paris. Similarly, Rigdon’s son recounted that his family parted with JS in Indiana and then traveled to Paris. (JS History, vol. B-1, 780; Rigdon, “Life Story of Sidney Rigdon,” 62.)
Rigdon, John Wickliff. “Life Story of Sidney Rigdon,” no date. CHL. MS 3451.
See Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 18, 39, 540 [1 Nephi 8:1; 16:11; Ether 1:41; 2:3].