, Letter, , Middlesex and Surrey counties, England, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 15 June 1841. Featured version published in “Letter from Elder O. Hyde,” in Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1841, vol. 2, no. 23, 551–555. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
Historical Introduction
On 15 June 1841, wrote a letter from reporting on his mission to serve as an ambassador to the Jews abroad. Hyde sent the letter to JS in , Illinois, and intended it to be published in the Times and Seasons.
After proselytizing and raising funds throughout the eastern for several months, arrived in , England, on 3 March 1841. The letter featured here was the second one Hyde sent to JS from Europe, and it detailed his efforts to meet with the leadership of the Jewish community in and his authorship of materials describing the origins and tenets of the . Also included in the letter were excerpts from a booklet Hyde wrote while in . The booklet, patterned after ’s 1840 pamphlet A[n] Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, explained the founding of the church. Hyde copied the excerpts into this letter for JS to review; he planned to have the booklet translated and published once he arrived in .
also reported on his attempts to fulfill his original mission assignment to seek information regarding the “views and movements of the Jewish people.” After calling on the chief rabbi of Great Britain, , at the Great Synagogue of , Hyde was informed that the rabbi had suffered injuries from a recent accident and was unable to grant him an audience. In response, Hyde penned a letter—which he copied into his letter to JS—informing Hirschell of his “divine appointment” to meet with the Jewish communities in several major world cities. There is no evidence that Hirschell responded to Hyde’s letter.
’s original letter to JS is apparently not extant. The letter was published in the 1 October 1841 issue of the Times and Seasons; that version is featured here. Although there is no known response from JS, Hyde continued his communications to JS with another letter a month later.
You know the reasons there better than I do; and you have received a speciman of the English . Now if you have any counsel to give concerning the gathering, in addition to that already given, I shall be happy to receive it, and execute as far as opportunity offers. I shall not remain here long, it is true. But is here, and I shall return here sometime if the Lord will.
I must now close by saying for one and all, God bless forever and ever.
The first group of emigrating Saints left Liverpool on 6 June 1840, arrived in New York on 20 July, and then traveled to Nauvoo. (“Emigration,” Millennial Star, Sept. 1840, 1:136.)
JS counseled the Twelve concerning British emigration in a December 1840 letter, wherein he stated that since Nauvoo was a gathering place, “let those men who are accustomed to making machinery and those who can command a capital even if it be but small, come here as soon as convenient.” (Letter to Quorum of the Twelve, 15 Dec. 1840; see also Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124:25–28].)
In April 1841 the apostles in England met in a conference, blessed Hyde for his mission to Palestine, and prepared to return to the United States. By earlier agreement, Pratt would remain in England and run the printing operations there. At the end of April, the rest of the apostles and the emigrating converts sailed on the Rochester for the United States. (Woodruff, Journal, 7 and 19–21 Apr. 1841; Fielding, Journal, Feb.–Oct. 1841, 30–31.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Fielding, Joseph. Journals, 1837–1859. CHL. MS 1567.