1842 08 15 Times and Seasons-Mission To England
From the Times and Seasons 15 August 1842, pg 879-884
From the Millenial Star
MISSION TO ENGLAND.
Or the first Foreign Mission of the Latter Day Saints.
About the first of June, 1837, Elder Heber C. Kimball was called by the spirit of revelation, and set apart by the first presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, then at Kirtland, Ohio, (N. A.) to preside over a mission to England, accompanied by Elder O. Hyde, who was set apart for the same work at the same time. In a few days brother Joseph Fielding, a priest, was set apart; and on the eve of the 12th, Elder Willard Richards, (having been absent several month, on a long journey, and having returned the day previous,) was called and set apart for the same mission.
The following morning, Tuesday 13th these brethren gave the parting hand, bid farewell to home, and without purse or scrip started for England. They were accompanied 12 miles, to Fairport, on Lake Erie, by Elders Brigham Young, John P. Green, and Brother Levi Richards, and sisters Kimball, Green Fielding, (brother R. B. Thompson and wife accompanied the mission to Buffalo, and brother Fitch Brigham to Utica,) and others, with whom they parted in the P. M. and went on board a steamer for Buffalo, where they arrived next day.
At this place the brethren expected to receive some means from Canada to assist them on their journey, but were disappointed. In the evening they took passage on a canal boat, and arrived in Albany on the 19th (Elder Hyde having gone forward to N. Y. from Rochester.)
Brother Fielding proceeded to New York, and on the 20th, Elder Kimball accompanied Elder Richards to his father's house in Richmond, Massachusetts, 30 miles east, wheere they spent one day, and having received some assistance from his friends, bade them farewell for the last time, (his father and mother having since died, also a sister whom he left in Kirtland) and on the 21st returned to Albany, and arrived in New York on the 22nd, where they found brothers O. Hyde and Fielding; also, elders John Goodson, Issac Russel, and John Snyder, priest, (who had come from Canada to join the mission) anxiously waiting their arrival, so that they might take passage on board the United States, which was to sail next day, but they arrived too late.
In New York elder Richards received some further means quite providentially, and on the 23d the brethren engaged passage to Liverpool on board the Garrick, which was to sail on the 1st of July.
In the mean time the brethren received every possible assistance from Elder Elijah Fordham, for at that time he was the only member of the church residing in the city, and having no house of his own, he procured his father's store house for the use of the brethren, where they lodged on the floor, amid straw and blankets one week, eating their cold morsel, and coversing with the people as they had opportunity; for no place could be procured to preach in,--and there was no one to receive them into their houses.
Sunday the 25th, the brethren held a council at their lodgings, (Mr. Fordham's store) and organized ready for taking their departure.
29th, the brethren sealed, superscribed and forwarded 180 of elder O. Hyde's "Timely Warnings," to the ministers of the different denominations in the city, and went on board the Garrick, which hauled out into the river and cast anchor. July 1st, the ship weighed anchor and was towed to the Hook by a steamer, where she spread sail, and in four and a half hours was out of sight of land.
On the 9th (of April, 1838), elders Kimball, Hyde, and Russell, took leave of the Saints in Preston, and went to Liverpool, where they were visited by elders Fielding, Richards, Clayton, and others, and on the 20th of April sailed for New York, on board the Garrick, the same ship they came out on to England.
