Wilford Woodruff's Mission to Herefordshire — United Brethren Converted (March 1840)

In early March 1840 Apostle Wilford Woodruff, then preaching in the Staffordshire potteries (Hanley), recorded that on his birthday (March 1) he privately asked the Lord what he should do and received a strong impression to "go to the south" because "many souls were waiting for the word of the Lord." He had no set destination until William Benbow, a recent convert, mentioned his brother John Benbow, a farmer in Castle Frome, Herefordshire, and offered to pay Woodruff’s way. Woodruff traveled roughly sixty miles by coach and on foot and arrived at John Benbow’s farm in Castle Frome (accounts give his arrival there on March 4, 1840).

On finding the area, Woodruff discovered an unusually large group of seekers: approximately 600 members of a Christian reform group called the United Brethren were assembled and receptive. According to Woodruff’s journal entries and later accounts, he baptized John and Jane Benbow (March 4–5 entries) and several others; contemporary summaries of the mission state that roughly 600 converts were baptized in the following weeks (some sources say about 600 baptisms in 35 days). Thomas Kington is also named among those associated with this episode in the local accounts. The event is recorded in Woodruff’s journals and in contemporary LDS publications and later histories.