Reuben Hedlock: American Convert Who Became British Mission President and Wrote to Joseph Smith from England

Reuben Hedlock (1809–1869) was born in the United States, married Susan Wheeler in 1827, and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by 1836. He was among the faithful in Kirtland, and the Kirtland Elders' Quorum Record documents his active participation in the quorum meetings of that era.

Hedlock moved with the main body of the Saints — first to Missouri with the Kirtland Camp in 1838, then to Quincy, Illinois in 1839, and eventually to Nauvoo. He held the office of president of the Kirtland Elders' Quorum until June 1838, when he was released and replaced by John Morton.

His most remarkable assignment came when he was called to preside over the British Mission, serving from October 1843 to January 1845, and again briefly in 1846. In January 1844, he wrote a detailed letter to Joseph Smith from England — now preserved in the Joseph Smith Papers — reporting on the state of the branches throughout Great Britain, including references to conditions across the various missions and an extract from an outside observer's account. This letter is a significant primary source for British Mission history.

Hedlock was a printer and carpenter by trade and was described in Church records as a 'journeyman.' His transatlantic service, his faithful migration through all the Church's upheavals in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, and his eventual presidential role over the British Mission mark him as one of the quietly significant early Church servants.