Historian’s Office, Martyrdom Account, Draft
Historian’s Office, Martyrdom Account, Draft
Source Note
Source Note
Historian’s Office, martyrdom account, draft; handwriting of Jonathan Grimshaw, , and ; 57 pages plus several inserted pages; CHL.
For more information on the History Drafts, see Introduction to History Drafts, 1844–1856.
Historical Introduction
Historical Introduction
The “Historian’s Office, Martyrdom Account, Draft,” and the “Historian’s Office, Martyrdom Account” are the two complete, extant iterations of efforts by later church historians to record the murder of JS and , including the events leading up to their deaths and the immediate aftermath. As stated at the beginning of both accounts, the information was compiled from a number of different sources, including other journals, letters, and various other documents. It was put into a cohesive narrative during the 1850s by Church Historian’s Office clerks , Jonathan Grimshaw, and , presumably under the direction of the church historian, .
was the initial scribe for approximately the first half of “Historian’s Office, Martyrdom Account, Draft,” and Grimshaw was the primary scribe for the remainder. Sometimes slips of paper were attached to pages of the draft with additional or alternative text to be included with a specific page. Page 12 of the draft has a notation by Grimshaw indicating that previously drafted text was to be added to the draft; instead of copying the text, he simply inserted a whole leaf into the draft. This leaf, in ’s handwriting, contains various numbered vignettes. It appears to be part of a larger collection of vignettes, as it is paginated “5” and “6,” and is likely the surviving portion of an earlier iteration of the martyrdom account by Thomas Bullock. The remainder of Bullock’s effort is not extant.
“Historian’s Office, Martyrdom Account,” which is a more final copy written primarily by Grimshaw in the mid-1850s, similarly has slips of papers attached. It also includes several leaves that were physically removed from “Martyrdom Account, Draft”; these leaves were renumbered to match the pagination of the copy: pages 7–10 in the draft became pages 11–14 in the more final copy; pages 13–14 became 19–20; most extensively, pages 19–52 became 27–60; and finally, page 57, the last page of the draft, became page 73 in the new version. Although these leaves are cataloged with the more final copy, this website presents the pages both in the draft, as originally paginated, and in the more final copy, with the new pagination. Two additional items were added at the end of the more final copy. A bifolium paginated as “75” and “2” and written on the back of a printed Utah Territory legal form gives an account of the arrival of the bodies of JS and Hyrum Smith in Nauvoo as well as the funeral and burial. It was written by Grimshaw and edited by from information given by . On the final leaf, which is torn and is paginated “76,” Bullock drafted an introduction to a passage from ’s History of Illinois, with instructions to include the passage from Ford’s history in the martyrdom account.
Both the draft and the more final copy were edited by , Grimshaw, and . It is not clear when the edits were made. The more final copy of the account appears to be what was used in 1856 when the final version was copied into the last volume of the Joseph Smith’s multivolume manuscript history (JS History, vol. F-1, 147, 151–204).
<then> expressed his feelings about the destruction of the <“Expositor> press”
Joseph spoke of <his> imprisonment in , <and of the shameful kidnapping of his witnesses and their being thrust into prison to prevent them from giving testimony in my <his> favor.>
spoke of the Constitution
Joseph said we were willing to pay for the press<, as he did not want them <the owners> to suffer any loss by it, neither did he wish such a libelous paper to be published in .>
<As for calling out the > if it were <was> intended to resist the Government of the it would be treason. If people <but as they> believed they were endeavoring to defend themselves <and had no such intention as to resist the government> it was all right.
10¼ A.M. The left, after saying that the prisoners were under his protection, and again pledged <pledging> himself that that they should be protected from violence, and told them <telling them> that if the troops marched the next morning to as he then expected, they should <probably> be taken along, in order to insure their personal safety, with how much sincerity may be seen by the following affidavits -[insert ’s, and J[onathan] C. Wrights affidavits and <’s.> <& [William G.] Sterrett>]-
While Joseph was writing at his <the ’s> desk William Wall stepped up, wanting to deliver a verbal message <to him> from his Uncle . He turned round to speak to Wall, but the guard refused to allow them any communication.
At noon Joseph wrote to as folows “” [p. 25]
Source Note
Source Note
Document Transcript
Document Information
Document Information
Footnotes
Footnotes
Unless otherwise specified, all insertions on this page are in the handwriting of Jonathan Grimshaw.
Jonathan Grimshaw wrote “ing” over “ed” in “pledged”, thus changing “pledged” to “pledging”.
Insertion in the handwriting of Thomas Bullock.
Insertion in the handwriting of James Sloan.
Insertion in the handwriting of James Sloan.
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