Footnotes
Revelation, 8 July 1838–A [D&C 118:4].
John Taylor, “Reminiscences,” Juvenile Instructor, 30 Oct. 1875, 256.
Noble, Joseph B. “Early Scenes in Church History.” Juvenile Instructor, 15 May 1880, 112.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
| 160. | Isle of Man | 70. | |
| Ireland about | 25. | Howarden [Hawarden, Wales] | 30. |
Taylor’s efforts included a public debate with Thomas Hamilton, published rebuttals to both J. Curran and the Wesleyan Methodist preacher Robert Heys, and public lectures in response to Samuel Haining. The content of the debates was also reproduced in the pages of the Isle of Man’s local papers, Manx Liberal, Manx Sun, and the Manx Star, through the end of the year. (John Taylor, Liverpool, England, 27 Feb. 1841, Letter to the Editor, Millennial Star, Mar. 1841, 1:276–278; see also excerpts of the Manx Liberal in Millennial Star, Nov. 1840, 1:178–183.)
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
Taylor stayed with Solomon and Ann Hughlings Pitchforth somewhere on the North Quay. Their son Samuel was reportedly the first convert to the church on the Isle of Man. It is possible the chimney corner was either in the Pitchforth home on the North Quay or in one of the hotels Solomon ran on the island. In 1841, Solomon was operating the Marine Hotel in Peel and the Mitre Hotel in Kirk Michael. (Obituary for Samuel Pitchforth, Millennial Star, 28 Jan. 1878, 40:64; Ann Hughlings Pitchforth, “To the Saints in the Isle of Man,” Millennial Star, 15 July 1846, 8:12; Great Britain Census Office, Census Returns of the Isle of Man, 1841, Parish of Michael, District 2, p. 8, microfilm 464,356, British Isles Record Collection, FHL.)
Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star. Manchester, England, 1840–1842; Liverpool, 1842–1932; London, 1932–1970.
British Isles Record Collection. FHL.
The papers Taylor sent to JS may have been the local newspapers from the Isle of Man that detailed the debates between Taylor and his various detractors.
After Blakeslee arrived in Liverpool from New York in November 1840, Taylor asked him to take his place on the Isle of Man. Blakeslee remained on the Isle of Man from 16 November 1840 to 16 February 1841. (James Blakeslee, Rome, NY, 11 June 1841, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 15 July 1841, 2:484.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Orson Hyde was en route to Liverpool and arrived on 3 March 1841. Though Hyde and Page were chastised for “delaying their mission,” Page remained in Cincinnati and abandoned the mission to the Holy Land. (Letter from Orson Hyde, 17 Apr. 1841; Notice, Times and Seasons, 15 Jan. 1841, 2:287; Letter from John E. Page, 1 Sept. 1841.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
James Burnham traveled with James Blakeslee and Levi Richards from New York to Liverpool in late 1840. Burnham was commissioned to proselytize in northern Wales. (James Blakeslee, Rome, NY, 11 June 1841, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 15 July 1841, 2:484.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Captain Richard K. Porter led the voyage aboard the ship Sheffield from Liverpool to New Orleans, Louisiana, from 7 February to 30 March 1841. (Neibaur, Journal, 7 Feb. and 30 Mar. 1841.)
Neibaur, Alexander. Journal, 1841–1862. CHL. MS 1674.
Taylor is referring here to the “Oriental Crisis” covered extensively in British newspapers. The Egyptian viceroy, Muhammad Ali Pasha, sought to extend his control over the Ottoman Empire’s holdings from Gaza to Asia Minor. After several attempts at conquest, which had varying degrees of success, Muhammad Ali’s rebellions were quelled by British troops, and he was forced to return to Egypt. Muhammad Ali’s hopes for French military support proved baseless when France also rejoined the pro-Ottoman nations in October 1840. (Karsh and Karsh, Empires of the Sand, 39.)
Karsh, Efraim, and Inari Karsh. Empires of the Sand: The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1789–1923. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
Alexander McLeod was a Canadian sheriff who ordered an attack on the private American steamboat the Caroline because it was being used to aid Canadian rebels. One American was killed in the altercation, generating American outrage toward the Canadians and the British Empire. The incident occurred on 29 December 1837, and several retaliatory attacks followed. On 22 May 1838, the United States ambassador, Andrew Stevenson, demanded reparations in London. These developments were well documented in the British press. By the time Taylor wrote this letter, the affair had not been settled. Wilford Woodruff, who was also in England at the time, mentioned the McLeod affair in his journal entry a week later. (Stevens, Border Diplomacy, 13–17, 33–35; Woodruff, Journal, 17 Feb. 1841.)
Stevens, Kenneth R. Border Diplomacy: The Caroline and McLeod Affairs in Anglo-American- Canadian Relations, 1837–1842. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1989.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Taylor’s linking of turmoil and political unrest in the Ottoman Empire with the possibility of a Jewish return to Jerusalem was a common Christian approach of the time. Fellow apostle Orson Hyde was called to serve a mission abroad, to observe and report on the “present views and movements of the Jewish people,” and to help facilitate their return to Jerusalem by dedicating the Holy Land. The Times and Seasons even translated and republished an appeal to rally support for such a return that had originally been published in the German newspaper Der Orient. (Recommendation for Orson Hyde, 6 Apr. 1840; “The Jews,” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1841, 2:563–564. For more instances of this sentiment, see Kark, American Consuls in the Holy Land, 23.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Kark, Ruth. American Consuls in the Holy Land, 1832–1914. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University; Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994.
The British and Qing empires engaged in what was later called the First Opium War from 1839–1842. After Chinese officials attempted to block trade and eradicate opium use in China, the British retaliated by destroying river blockades and occupying Canton. Residing in England at the time, Taylor was surrounded by printed reports and fervent public discourse debating the future and ramifications of the conflict in China and the opium trade. For instance, the London Dispatch ran an article on 25 August 1839 on how the “news from China continue[d] to occupy much of the public mind.” The “Opium Question” increasingly filled the pages of periodicals, and in March 1840, Taylor and Joseph Fielding even visited Pembroke Chapel to hear a lecture on the war. The speaker was decidedly against British coercion in continuing the opium trade and related detailed accounts of British injustice. He also referenced chapter 18 of the book of Revelation to describe the traffic in slaves and the souls of man. According to Fielding, he and Taylor left “well satisfied with the Lecture” and its “excellent Manner & Spirit” of delivery. The conflict in China was also reported in the church’s periodicals, through excerpts from local newspapers and under the heading of “wars and rumors of wars,” as a millenarian sign of the times. (“Foreign Intelligence,” London Dispatch, 25 Aug. 1839, 1; Fielding, Journal, 1840–1841, 129–130; “Wars and Rumors of Wars,” Times and Seasons, 1 Dec. 1840, 2:232; Editorial, Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1841, 2:350.)
London Dispatch. London. 1836–1839.
Fielding, Joseph. Journals, 1837–1859. CHL. MS 1567.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.