Letter from Brigham Young, 29 April 1840
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Source Note
, Letter, [, Herefordshire, England], to JS “and counselors,” [, Hancock Co., IL, 29 Apr. 1840]. Featured version published in Times and Seasons, June 1840, 121–122. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
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Historical Introduction
On 29 April 1840, wrote a letter to JS and his counselors in the . Young had left , Iowa Territory, on 14 September 1839 to serve a mission to and was informing the First Presidency of the growth and status of the in Great Britain. The document appears to have primarily served as a cover letter for a report of a general of the church held two weeks earlier in , England. The letter asked JS and his counselors to correct any action of the conference they felt was amiss, conveyed the English Saints’ request for a new hymnal, and included a personal note from Young about his desire to reunite with his old friends.The report of the conference gave detailed information about the numbers of church members and holders in the various in and Scotland. It recorded business the conference conducted, including decisions to compile and publish a hymnal and a monthly periodical and to select and a —all under the direction of the . The report, which also contained minutes of meetings the Twelve held in Preston on 14 and 16 April, was published in , Illinois, in the June 1840 issue of the Times and Seasons immediately preceding the published version of ’s letter. No manuscript copy of the letter has been located. The Times and Seasons version does not include a date or place of production. However, the published version is followed by a letter from , which Woodruff indicated was written in unused space on Young’s letter. Woodruff’s letter was dated 29 April 1840 and gave , England, as the location from which the letter was sent.
Footnotes
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1
Young, Journal, 14 Sept. 1839.
Young, Brigham. Journals, 1832–1877. Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1, boxes 71–73.
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2
Minutes, 15 Apr. 1840, Wilford Woodruff, Collection, 1831–1905, CHL.
Woodruff, Wilford. Collection, 1831–1905. Digital scans. CHL. Originals in private possession.
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3
“From England,” Times and Seasons, June 1840, 1:119–122.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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4
The manuscript report of the conference is in the Wilford Woodruff Collection, CHL. The letter from Wilford Woodruff to the Times and Seasons editors, Ebenezer Robinson and Don Carlos Smith, was printed accompanying the conference report in the June 1840 issue of the periodical and was apparently written on the same paper as Young’s letter. Woodruff opened his letter by saying, “As elder Young is writing, I am privileged with a space for a few lines.” (Minutes, 15 Apr. 1840, Wilford Woodruff, Collection, 1831–1905, CHL; “From England,” Times and Seasons, June 1840, 1:122.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Collection, 1831–1905. Digital scans. CHL. Originals in private possession.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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1
Document Transcript
Footnotes
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1
Between his baptism in April 1832 and his return from this mission to England in July 1841, Young served eight missions for the church, spending more than one third of the decade after his baptism away from his friends and family. (Whittaker, “Brigham Young and the Missionary Enterprise,” 86–87.)
Whittaker, David J. “Brigham Young and the Missionary Enterprise.” In Lion of the Lord: Essays on the Life and Service of Brigham Young, edited by Susan Easton Black and Larry C. Porter, 85–106. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1995.
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2
Young was referring to the decision of the Preston conference that the Twelve should publish a hymnal. (“From England,” Times and Seasons, June 1840, 1:120–121.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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3
Before departing on their mission to England, Young and other apostles had selected some hymns, copies of which Young took with him, in hopes of publishing them in England. At a meeting on 27 October 1839, the Nauvoo high council decided that Emma Smith would compile the new hymnal and that Young should not publish one in England. The council then resolved that Young would be notified of the decision. (Minutes, 27 Oct. 1839.)
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4
Unauthorized publication of church hymnals had been a topic of concern at an October 1839 general conference of the church in Commerce, Illinois. By citing the high costs of importing and exporting books, Young provided a rationale for the Preston conference’s decision to have the Twelve publish a hymnal in England, possibly in hopes of obtaining First Presidency approval. Young wrote to JS again eight days later, continuing the discussion of the Twelve’s authority to publish church books in England and extending the question to publishing the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. (Minutes and Discourses, 5–7 Oct. 1839; Letter from Brigham Young, 7 May 1840.)
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5
JS responded to Young’s letter with one sent on 19 July 1840 and carried by Lorenzo Snow. No copy of JS’s response survives. (See Historical Introduction to Letter from Brigham Young, 7 May 1840.)