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SCOTTISH MISSION. The British Mission was opened by Apostle Heber C. Kimball and six other missionaries in 1837. They commenced their labors in Preston, Lancashire, England, where a branch of the Church was organized Aug. 6, 1837. As more missionaries arrived, the work was extended to different parts of the kingdom. On Dec. 20, 1839, Elders Samuel Mulliner and Alexander Wright, of Scotch descent, arrived at Glasgow as the first L. D. S. missionaries to Scotland. The following day they proceeded to Edinburgh, where the parents of Elder Mulliner resided. Elder Wright also had relatives in the north of Scotland, whom he went to visit. Laboring alone for a short time, Elder Mulliner baptized Alexander Hay and his wife, Jessie Hay, in the River Clyde, at Bishopton, near Paisley, Jan. 14, 1840. These were the first fruits of the preaching of the gospel in Scotland. Five days later the newly baptized couple were confirmed and their children blessed, at which time the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered for the first time by divine authority in Scotland. A few days later Elder Mulliner joined Elder Wright in Edinburgh, and on Feb. 2, 1840, baptized two young men from Leith, named respectively Gillispie and McKenzie; Mrs. McKenzie was baptized on the 15th. Elders Mulliner and Wright soon afterwards commenced missionary operations at Paisley, where they hired a hall in which to preach; they baptized a lady, Mrs. Grace McMaster, and others, on March 26, 1840.
782In the beginning of May, 1840, Apostle Orson Pratt arrived at Paisley and assisted to organize a branch of the Church there on May 8, 1840, the first branch of the Church organized in Scotland. Up to May 17, 1840, eighty persons had been baptized in Scotland. Elders Pratt and Mulliner then proceeded to Edinburgh, where they hired a hall in which, on May 24th, Apostle Orson Pratt preached his first public discourse in Scotland, and soon afterwards a branch of 40 members was raised up in Edinburgh. In the fall of 1840 the branches in Edinburgh and vicinity were organized as the Edinburgh Conference.
783In May, 1840, Reuben Hedlock joined Elder Wright in Paisley and on June 6th they raised up a branch of the Church at Bridge-of-Weir. Elder Hedlock then went to Glasgow, where he hired a hall in which to preach, and on Aug. 8, 1840, raised up a branch of the Church in that city, consisting of 12 members, a membership which had increased in number to 74, two months later. The Glasgow Conference was organized soon afterwards, consisting of the branches of the Church in and near Glasgow. At a conference held in Manchester, England, April 6, 1841 (fifteen months, after the arrival of the first Elders in Glasgow), it was reported that there were about 600 members of the Church in Scotland. In 1850 the Dundee Conference was organized and in 1852 the Kilmarnock Conference, at which time the saints in Scotland numbered considerably over 3,000 souls.
783As emigration to the headquarters of the Church in America increased, the membership of the branches became less and two or more branches were frequently merged into one branch. The same policy was followed with regard to conferences, and in 1870 only one conference, namely, the Glasgow Conference, was in existence. In time, this conference was referred to as the "Scottish Conference" and Scotland, as a missionary field, is still designated as the "Scottish Conference, or District, of the British Mission."
Andrew Jenson, Encyclopedic History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing Co., 1941, p.782 |
Scotland 
