Letter from John Taylor, 3 February 1841
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Source Note
, Letter, , Lancashire, England, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 3 Feb. 1841. Featured version published in Times and Seasons, 1 May 1841, vol. 2, no. 13, 400–402. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
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Historical Introduction
Written on 3 February 1841 in , England, ’s letter to JS in , Illinois, recounted Taylor’s travel to and proselytizing work in the British Isles during the previous year and a half.In July 1838, JS dictated a revelation appointing and three other men to fill vacant positions in the . The revelation instructed the Twelve to “go over the great waters and there promulge [promulgate] my gospel.” The revelation’s call to fulfill a proselytizing mission abroad “next spring” allowed the apostles some time for preparation, but it likely tested their commitment, as it came on the cusp of the 1838 conflict between the and other Missourians that resulted in many deaths, the incarceration of JS and other church leaders, and the expulsion of the Latter-day Saints from , which led the Saints to flee to and . As a result of the expulsion, most Saints lived in temporary housing and in poor conditions. Taylor and his family temporarily resided in a one-room section of a “miserable, old log barrack” in , Iowa Territory, and, though they were grateful for this lodging, they nevertheless lacked many basic necessities. Despite these hardships, Taylor and the other apostles began preparing for their mission overseas.On 8 August 1839, set out for the British Isles with , who was “severely afflicted with fever.” Shortly after departing , Taylor also came down with a high fever, an illness that almost took his life; because of his extreme illness, he and Woodruff eventually parted ways as Woodruff left Taylor behind to recover. Taylor later met fellow apostle in , Ohio, and they continued to . When Taylor arrived in in November, he and Woodruff reunited and booked passage to with , a member of the . At the conclusion of a stormy, three-week crossing of the Atlantic, the men arrived in on 11 January 1840. After his arrival in England, Taylor spent most of his time in Liverpool but also preached in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man.expressed his intention to send the letter featured here the day after he completed it by “Steam Packet,” or mail steamer. The letter probably arrived in sometime within the next five to eight weeks. That JS received the letter is confirmed by its publication in the May 1841 issue of Times and Seasons, the church periodical in Nauvoo. The original letter is apparently no longer extant. JS, who had two months earlier replied to several letters from the Twelve in a general letter to the group, apparently never responded directly to this letter from Taylor.
Footnotes
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1
Revelation, 8 July 1838–A [D&C 118:4].
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3
John Taylor, “Reminiscences,” Juvenile Instructor, 30 Oct. 1875, 256.
Noble, Joseph B. “Early Scenes in Church History.” Juvenile Instructor, 15 May 1880, 112.
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4
John Taylor, Letter to the Editor, Millennial Star, May 1841, 2:13; John Taylor, Germantown, IN, to Leonora Cannon Taylor, Commerce, IL, 19 Jan. 1839, John Taylor, Collection, CHL; see also Esplin, “Sickness and Faith, Nauvoo Letters,” 425–434.
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
Esplin, Ronald K. “Sickness and Faith, Nauvoo Letters.” BYU Studies 15, no. 4 (Summer 1975): 425–434.
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5
John Taylor, Letter to the Editor, Millennial Star, May 1841, 2:13–14; John Taylor, Liverpool, England, to Leonora Cannon Taylor, Commerce, IL, 30 Jan. 1840, John Taylor, Collection, CHL.
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
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6
Even the fastest Atlantic mail steamers took approximately two weeks, and the additional distance from New York to Nauvoo added another several weeks. (See Shulman, Coal and Empire, 17–21.)
Shulman, Peter A. Coal and Empire: The Birth of Energy Security in Industrial America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015.
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7
JS had written to the Twelve in England: “Having several communications laying before me, from my Brethren the ‘Twelve’ some of which have ere this merited a reply, but from the multiplicity of business which necessarily engages my attention I have delayed communicating to them, to the present time.” (Letter to Quorum of the Twelve, 15 Dec. 1840.)
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