Notes about Jesse Hobson's Mission to England

Notes about Jesse Hobson's Mission to England

Notes concerning the missionary labor of Jesse Hobson, while on his mission in England, are included in an LDS Church Periodical of the time, called the "Latter Day Saints Millennial Star." The Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star (usually shortened to Millennial Star) was the longest continuously published periodical of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, being printed in England from 1840 until 1970, when it was replaced by the Church-wide Ensign.

From the "Latter Day Saints Millennial Star, Volume 18" [Saturday, June 7, 1856.]

p. 362,

"NEWS FROM UTAH--

In the Tabernacle in Great Salt Lake City, on Sunday, February 24, 1856, the names of a large number of Elders appointed on missions were read. The greater portion of them were called to strengthen the missions among the Lamanites."

"The following were appointed on foreign missions. To Europe; Elders Orson Pratt and Ezra T. Benson, of the Quorum of the Twelve; Phineas H. Young, Orson Pratt, junior, Miles Romney, James Beck, James Ure, Truman O. Angel, James Taylor, Lorenzo Hatch, Isaac Higbee, William Pace, William Miller, Jesse Hobson, Peter Robinson, Thomas R. King, John A. Ray, Edwin Holden."

p.488,

"APPOINTMENT OF MISSIONARIES.--At a General Conference, held at Great Salt Lake City on the 6th of April last [1856], the following Elders were appointed on missions to the Eastern Hemisphere--Presidents Orson Pratt and Ezra T. Benson, of the Council of the Twelve; Elders Phineas H. Young, Truman O. Angell, Thomas R. King, Elijah E. Holden, Peter Robison, John A. Ray, William Pace, Isaac Higbee, William Miller, Almerin Graw, Henry J. Doremus, James Beck, Lorenzo H. Hatch, Jacob Gibson, Jesse Hobson, Miles Romney, James Taylor, Thomas Bladen, and James Ure."

p. 536

"ARRIVALS.--The following Missionaries, from Utah for Europe, sailed from New York, on the ship New World, on the 5th of July, and arrived in Liverpool on the 7th of August--Elders Thomas Bladen, Elijah E. Holden, Jesse Hobson, James Beck, Miles Romney, James Taylor, Henry J. Doremus, William Pace, Thomas R. King, Peter Robison, Isaac Higbee, and James Ure."

--Jesse Hobson apparently served his mission in England under Mission President Orson Pratt, with Elder Ezra T. Benson, First Counselor, and Elder James A. Little, Second Counselor (as of August 16, 1856.) Jesse was assigned to labor in the Bedfordshire area, under an English LDS convert, called as a Pastor, James Lavender.

[James Lavender is mentioned in this issue on pp. 268, 304, 375, 400, 448, 581, 686. James Lavendar had been baptized into the LDS Church by Willard Richards, on 25 December 1837, in or near Bedfordshire. James Lavendar emigrated from England on the ship, 'Echo,' in 1841. James later returned to England, and took a second voyage to America on the ship, 'Empire,' in 1858. James again returned to England, and took a third voyage from England to America, in 1861. James apparently took another trip to England, because the Latter-Day Saints Millennial Star, Volume 39, p. 112, states that Elder James Lavendar died at Bedford, England, on 30 January 1877 of erysipelas, a severe bacterial infection.]

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When Jesse Hobson returned home from his mission to England, in 1858, he sailed on the ship, 'Empire.' The ship, 'The Underwriter,' sailed at approximately the same schedule, and so Jesse Hobson was mentioned in the diaries and journals of passengers from both ships, including the journals of James L. Bunting, Thomas Bullock, and Eli Harvey Peirce. Information about these journals can be read on the website, mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu.