Description

Chatburn and Downham

In 1837, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Joseph Fielding, and others were called to labor as missionaries in the British Isles. They centered their labors in Preston, England. In September 1837, Heber and Joseph ventured out into the countryside to the smaller villages. Heber declared his intention of visiting Chatburn and Downham, two villages northeast of Preston.

“Several brethren endeavored to dissuade me from going,” Heber said, “Informing me there could be no prospect of success whatever as they had resisted all efforts for the last thirty years. I was informed they were wicked places.” Heber went anyway, telling them that “It was my business not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Heber records what happened when they arrived in Chatburn. “I was cordially received by the inhabitants who turned out in great numbers to hear me preach. They placed a barrel in the center of a large barn for me to preach on. I preached to them the first principles of the gospel, and a little on the subject of the resurrection. When I concluded, I felt someone pulling at my coat, exclaiming, ‘maister, maister. Please sir, will you baptize me? And me? And me? Exclaimed more than a dozen voices. Accordingly, I went down into the water and baptized twenty-five. I was engaged with them until after midnight. The next morning I returned to Downham and baptized between 25 and 30 in the course of the day. The next evening, I returned to Chatburn. The congregation was so numerous that I had to preach in the open air and stand on a stone wall, and afterwards baptized several. We were absent from Preston five days during which time Brother Fielding and I baptized and confirmed about 110 persons.”

Elder Fielding spoke of these experiences thus, “There is wonderful work in Downham and Chatburn, two small villages. It appears as though the whole of the inhabitants were turning to the Lord from 10 to 90 years old. It is truly affecting to see them.”

On a subsequent visit to the area, Elder Kimball recalled this, “I cannot refrain from relating an occurrence which took place while Brother Fielding and myself were passing through the village of Chatburn on our way to Downham. Having been observed approaching the village, news ran from house to house, and immediately the noise of their looms was hushed, and the people flocked to their doors to welcome us and see us pass. More than forty young people of the place ran to meet us; some took hold of us and then of each other’s hands; several having hold of hands went before us singing the songs of Zion, while their parents gazed upon the scene with delight, and poured their blessings upon our head and praised God for sending us. The children continued with us to Downham, a mile distant. Such a scene and such gratitude I never witnessed before. And this from those whose hearts were deemed too hard to be penetrated by the gospel.”

The brethren were thronged sufficiently that they could scarcely pass along the street. Heber continued, “On the morning when I left Chatburn, many were in tears thinking they should see my face no more. When I left them, my feelings were such as I cannot describe.

As I walked down the street, I was followed by numbers; the doors were crowded by the inmates of the houses to bid me farewell, who could only give vent to their grief in sobs and broken accents. While contemplating this scene, I was constrained to take off my hat, for I felt as if that place was holy ground. The Spirit of the Lord rested down upon me and I was constrained to bless that whole region of country. We could hardly separate. My heart was like unto theirs and I thought my head was a fountain of tears, for I wept for several miles after I bid them adieu. I had to leave the road three times to go to streams of water to bathe my eyes.”

When Heber returned home, he related his Chatburn and Downham experience to the Prophet Joseph Smith who explained, “Did you not understand it? That is a place where some of the old prophets travelled and dedicated that land, and their blessing fell upon you.”

Is it possible that those people were remnants of the lost tribes of Israel and is it possible that Jesus’s apostles visited there? There is so much of history yet to be revealed.

Sources:

Journals of Heber C. Kimball

The Conversion of Chatburn and Downham, Peter Fagg, written for Meridian Magazine June 27, 2016.