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Mormon emigration from Sheffield |
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Mormon Church
Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church
© Courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |
The Mormon Church was formally organised in America in 1830 and was soon courting controversy and bad press from mainstream Christian church members. In 1844, the prophet and founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith, was assassinated whilst in prison on charges of riot and treason. In their book, The Mormon Experience, Leonard J. Arrington and Davis Britton explain why the Mormons faced persecution in America:
"The Mormon religion included not only a theology and a standard of morality but also an eschatology, an economic philosophy and a gift of community building that inevitably meant political and economic tensions with their neighbours. "
In spite of this persecution, the first foreign missions were sent to Britain in 1840 with the task of recruiting converts to emigrate and boost Church numbers in America. The burgeoning towns and cities of Victorian England provided rich pickings for the Mormons, yielding plenty of eager converts, who were desperate for the new life the Mormons promised them. 
Waggons approach Salt Lake Valley
© Courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |
The missionaries were extremely successful and by 1850 the Church had 30,747 members in England, compared with 21,092 in North America and the rest of the world. Estimates from Mormon Church historians suggest that almost 100,000 British followers of the Mormon faith emigrated to Utah, the Mormon state in the 19th Century.
Sheffield based Mormon Church historian Remie Bell has uncovered evidence of attempts by the police to break up church meetings in the city. There were many reasons for the "bad press" surrounding the church in Britain, one of these was the fact that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Church accepted and encouraged polygamy, something that was strongly frowned upon by both the Anglican and Catholic churches. Many converts dreamt of making the pioneering journey to Utah and building a new home in a Mormon community, far away from the church's enemies.
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