United Brethren (England)

Last updated

To be distinguished from the United Brethren in England

The United Brethren were a group of former Primitive Methodists in Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, England, that converted en masse to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1840.

Contents

In the mid-1830s, a group of approximately 600 Primitive Methodists led by Thomas Kington [1] left the Primitive Methodism movement and established an independent religious organization, which they called the United Brethren. The church was divided into many small congregations scattered among the Three Counties, with 50 designated preachers for the group. In 1836, the United Brethren built the Gadfield Elm Chapel, near Ledbury.

In March 1840, Latter Day Saint missionary and apostle Wilford Woodruff was brought to Hill Farm, Fromes Hill by William Benbow, a recent English convert to Mormonism. Benbow introduced Woodruff to his brother John Benbow, who was a member of the United Brethren. Woodruff received permission to preach to United Brethren congregations, and in the first 30 days he had baptized 45 preachers and 160 members of the United Brethren into the Latter Day Saint church. By December 1840, 300 members of the church had been converted to Mormonism, and ultimately all the members of the United Brethren except one became Latter Day Saints. Woodruff and other Latter Day Saint missionaries also had success among the non-United Brethren in the area, baptizing a total of 1800 people by January 1841.

The United Brethren's Gadfield Elm Chapel was converted into a Latter Day Saint chapel, and today it is the oldest extant chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the world. [2]

Notes

  1. Recorded as "Thomas Kington" by Wilford Woodruff. The name on the gravestone is also listed as "Thomas Kington". A notebook maintained by Thomas Kington's wife and daughter also lists the family name as Kington. An article written by a former United Brethren member Job Smith gives the name as Kington. The Bodenham Parish christening records for the Church of England give the name as Kington. Later historians have sometimes misspelled the name as Knighton or Kingston.
  2. "Do you know where the oldest Mormon chapel in the world is?: Gadfield Elm chapel is in our two counties", BBC News, 2007-03-23.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilford Woodruff</span> 4th President of the LDS Church from 1889-98

Wilford Woodruff Sr. was an American religious leader who served as the fourth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1889 until his death. He ended the public practice of plural marriage among members of the LDS Church in 1890.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorenzo Snow</span> American LDS Church leader (1814–1901)

Lorenzo Snow was an American religious leader who served as the fifth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1898 until his death. Snow was the last president of the LDS Church in the 19th century and the first in the 20th.

Thomas Baldwin Marsh was an early leader in the Latter-day Saint movement and an original member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who served as the quorum's first president in the Church of the Latter Day Saints from 1835 to 1838. He withdrew from the church in 1838, was excommunicated from it in 1839, and remained disaffected for almost 19 years. Marsh was rebaptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in July 1857, but never again served in church leadership positions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abraham O. Woodruff</span> Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Abraham Owen Woodruff was an American missionary who was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was also the son of LDS Church president Wilford Woodruff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parley P. Pratt</span> Early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement (1807–1857)

Parley Parker Pratt Sr. was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement whose writings became a significant early nineteenth-century exposition of the Latter Day Saint faith. Named in 1835 as one of the first members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Pratt was part of the Quorum's successful mission to Great Britain from 1839 to 1841. Pratt has been called "the Apostle Paul of Mormonism" for his promotion of distinctive Mormon doctrines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1890 Manifesto</span> Mormon anti-polygamy statement

The 1890 Manifesto is a statement which officially advised against any future plural marriage in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Issued by Church President Wilford Woodruff in September 1890, the Manifesto was a response to mounting anti-polygamy pressure from the United States Congress, which by 1890 had disincorporated the church, escheated its assets to the U.S. federal government, and imprisoned many prominent polygamist Mormons. Upon its issuance, the LDS Church in conference accepted Woodruff's Manifesto as "authoritative and binding."

The Mormon Reformation was a period of renewed emphasis on spirituality within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a centrally-directed movement, which called for a spiritual reawakening among church members. It took place during 1856 and 1857 and was under the direction of church president Brigham Young. During the Reformation, Young sent his counselor, Jedediah M. Grant, and other church leaders to preach to the people throughout Utah Territory and surrounding Latter-day Saint communities with the goal of inspiring them to reject sin and turn towards spiritual things. During this time, some of the most conservative or reactionary elements of LDS Church doctrine came to dominate public discussion. As part of the Reformation, almost all "active" or involved LDS Church members were rebaptized as a symbol of their commitment. The Reformation is considered in three phases: a structural reform phase, a phase of intense demand for a demonstration of spiritual reform, and a final phase during which an emphasis was placed on love and reconstruction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George D. Watt</span> American journalist

George Darling Watt was the first convert to Mormonism baptized in the British Isles. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Watt was a secretary to Brigham Young, the primary editor of the Journal of Discourses, and the primary inventor of the Deseret Alphabet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Bullock (Mormon)</span>

Thomas Bullock was a Mormon pioneer and a clerk in the Church Historian's Office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Kington</span>

Thomas Kington III was the leader of the United Brethren in England who converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and after emigrating to Utah Territory became a bishop and patriarch in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was charged by Brigham Young to build Kington Fort in Weber County, Utah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gadfield Elm Chapel</span>

The Gadfield Elm Chapel near the village of Pendock in Worcestershire, England, is the oldest surviving chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

William James Barratt was an English convert to Mormonism and became the first Latter Day Saint to live in Australia when he was sent there as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. However, he ultimately apostatized from Mormonism.

Janne Mattson Sjödahl was a Swedish convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was the author of influential commentaries on LDS Church scriptures. Sjödahl was among the first commentators to advance a "limited geography model" for the theorized geography of the Book of Mormon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century</span>

Possibly as early as the 1830s, followers of the Latter Day Saint movement, were practicing the doctrine of polygamy or "plural marriage". After the death of church founder Joseph Smith, the doctrine was officially announced in Utah Territory in 1852 by Mormon leader Brigham Young. The practice was attributed posthumously to Smith and it began among Mormons at large, principally in Utah where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had relocated after the Illinois Mormon War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England</span> Christian denomination

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in England. England has five missions, and both temples in the United Kingdom. With 145,385 members in 2011, England had more LDS Church members than any other country in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Scotland</span>

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Scotland is the Scottish branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wales</span>

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wales refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints</span> Overview of and topical guide to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The following outline is provided as an overview of and a topical guide to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

References

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Benbow's Pond, Castle Frome, Herefordshire at Wikimedia Commons Commons-logo.svg Media related to Gadfield Elm Chapel at Wikimedia Commons