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Trustee-in-Trust, Account Book, 13 December 1841–26 April 1847

Source Note

Trustee-in-Trust, “Index to The Book of the Law of the Lord and Accounts Current with the Temple Committee & Store, Nauvoo, December, 1841,” Account Book, , Hancock Co., IL, 13 Dec. 1841–26 Apr. 1847; handwriting of , , , John McEwan, and ; eighty-five pages; CHL.
A partial index of names from the Book of the Law of the Lord as well as a variety of lists of tithing donations were inscribed in a narrow, commercially produced account book measuring 15¼ × 6½ × ½ inches (39 × 17 × 1 cm). The front endpapers include a pastedown and two flyleaves, and the back endpapers include three flyleaves and a pastedown. The paper was printed with two horizontal red lines at the top of the page, followed by forty-five horizontal blue lines. Initial pages intended for use as an index also include preprinted alphabetical tabs. After the index, each page contains five sets of preprinted vertical red lines delineating the page into six columns of varying width. The pages measure 15⅛ × 6½ inches (38 × 17 cm). The volume includes 146 total pages, 85 of which are inscribed with the account of tithing donations presented herein. The boards are covered by green paper, and the spine is covered with calfskin leather, now with marked damage.
began using this book in , Illinois, in December 1841 in conjunction with his appointment as the temple recorder, who was responsible for recording tithing donations. As temple recorder, Richards, later , and assisting clerks, created disparate itemized lists of donated land, goods, promissory notes, and other resources. The first section of the volume consists of twenty-four pages containing an incomplete index of individuals’ donations recorded in the Book of the Law of the Lord. This index records the names of those who donated from December 1841 to December 1842 and includes donations up to page 263 in the Book of the Law of the Lord. Pagination begins after the index and extends to page 121 on the first back flyleaf and includes blank pages. The next section consists of two pages, 1 and 3, that are blank except for pagination and four pages of memorandums of donated receipts and consecrated promissory notes. The next section is unused, with pages 7 through 27 blank except for pagination. The section from pages 28 to 57 contains twenty-six invoices for goods delivered to the between December 1841 and October 1842 for their use in funding the construction of the . Pages 58 and 59 are blank. The next section of the volume, beginning on page 60, includes ledger entries for various church leaders and businesses in Nauvoo, including the church’s printing office and an unidentified store; this section also resumes memorandums of tithing donations. Pages 71, 80, 81, 82, 89, 90, 100, 103, 104, 108, 109, and 111 are blank except for pagination. Pages 112 to 115 contain a list of donated watches, guns, and other items.
This account book was retained with other tithing records in and was presumably taken to the Salt Lake Valley along with other trustee and tithing records. Between 1935 and 1959, the Historian’s Office inventoried manuscript records utilizing a numeric record identification system. An archival label with a numeric inscription adhered to the inside front cover of the volume associates the record book with this inventorying method.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Volume 1, entry 2355, in Written records index, ca. 1935–1973, CHL.

Historical Introduction

In December 1841, JS appointed to the newly created position of temple recorder and tasked him with recording the donation and distribution of tithing. This led Richards and other clerks assisting him to begin entering tithing information in several record books. Tithing donations were first written in a daybook kept by the recorder’s office, and then those same tithing donations were entered a second time in a record book known as the Book of the Law of the Lord.
After tithing donations were recorded, they were organized and distributed by the recorder’s office, or tithing office. Soon after his appointment, began tracking donated money and goods in the small record book featured here, which he titled, “Index To The Book of the Law of the Lord And Accounts Current with The Temple Committee & Store Nauvoo, December, 1841.” The first portion of the book contains an index to tithing donations made between December 1841 and December 1842 and recorded in the Book of the Law of the Lord. In the remainder of the book, Richards, , and other clerks itemized tithing donations, creating memoranda grouping similar items, such as watches, rifles, livestock, or bonds and deeds for land. These groups of donated items also included financial instruments, such as promissory notes, receipts, and shares of stock in the .
Many of the tithing donations were gathered and sent to the for its use in funding the construction of the . To record these transfers, the clerks created twenty-six invoices listing the money or goods being given to the temple committee between December 1841 and October 1842. Loose copies of the invoices were given to the temple committee along with the goods listed in the invoices, and another copy of the invoice was recorded in this account book. A few accounts in the form of ledger entries appear in the middle and end of this record book. These accounts for JS, , , and other individuals recorded tithing goods given to those individuals as compensation for their work in the tithing office and on trustee business. The clerks presumably realized that a larger record book would be needed for these accounts and started a new record book, Trustee Ledger A, in October 1842 to record additional temple committee invoices and individual accounts with the recorder’s office and trustee-in-trust.
Because this account book includes multiple genres—ranging from memoranda to invoices to ledger style accounts for individuals and businesses—information was not entered in the volume in a uniform way. However, with the exception of the ledger-style accounts, most entries contain the following information: the date of recording, the specifics of the donation (money, goods, livestock, promissory notes, and so forth), the names of the individuals involved with the donation, the page of the Book of the Law of the Lord on which the tithing donation was recorded, and the monetary value of the donation. For some entries, particularly for those involving donated financial documents, multiple names appear because both the donor and those named in the promissory note or were included. , , and other clerks frequently used abbreviations; for ease of reading and identification, frequent abbreviations have had the full word or words supplied once per page. In other instances, clarifying words that were used inconsistently by the clerks, such as per, have been supplied to indicate who was responsible for making the donation.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    JS, Journal, 13 Dec. 1841; JS, “To Whom It May Concern,” Times and Seasons, 15 Dec. 1841, 3:638.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  2. [2]

    Introduction to the Trustee Records; Historical Introduction to Tithing Daybook B; Introduction to the Book of the Law of the Lord.

  3. [3]

    Introduction to the Trustee Records. The recorder’s office, also referred to as the tithing office, was initially run by Willard Richards. When Richards planned to leave Nauvoo for a trip to the eastern United States in June 1842, William Clayton assumed the recordkeeping responsibilities of the office and was appointed temple recorder in place of Richards in September 1842. (JS and Willard Richards, “To the Eastern Churches,” Times and Seasons, 1 June 1842, 3:814; JS, Journal, 29 June 1842; Clayton, History of the Nauvoo Temple, 30–31.)

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

    Clayton, William. History of the Nauvoo Temple, 1845. CHL

  4. [4]

    Book of the Law of the Lord, Book A, 27, 263. The index is incomplete and includes up to page 263 in Book of the Law of the Lord, Book A.

  5. [5]

    See, for example, Invoice from A. I. Chittenden, circa 2 November 1841.

  6. [6]

    Trustee Account Book, 28–57, 64–67, 112.

  7. [7]

    Trustee Ledger A, 7–79. When William Clayton began recording in Trustee Ledger A in October 1842, he copied invoices 1–26 to the temple committee from this record book to the new ledger; later invoices were copied directly into the ledger.

  8. [8]

    Only a few Nauvoo businesses are included in the record book. The Nauvoo House Association figures prominently, both for its shares of stock, which were valued at fifty dollars each, as well as for its receipts and due bills that were submitted as tithing. The church’s printing office and newspaper editor’s office were also identified with distinct accounts. An unidentified “Store” is named on several pages. It is unclear if the store was the store run by the temple committee, JS’s Nauvoo store, or another local store. (See, for example, Trustee Account Book, 60, 62, 75–77, 83–86.)

  9. [9]

    See, for example, Trustee Account Book, 72–74.

Page 105

 
M[ar]ch 26 offers an acre of land (sown with Timothy Grass) who the Deed returns from commence at the S. W. [southwest] corner of Lot bought of McFall running E[ast] 16 Rods thence N[orth] 10 Rods thence W[est] 16 Rods thence S[outh] to the place of beginning 10 R[ods] for 50 Dollars—
[p. 105]
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Editorial Title
Trustee-in-Trust, Account Book, 13 December 1841–26 April 1847
ID #
19217
Total Pages
155
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • William Clayton

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