John Benbow: The Herefordshire Farmer Who Opened the Way for 600 Converts (1840)
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LDS Witness Archive
John Benbow was a prosperous farmer of Castle Frome, Herefordshire, England, into whose home Elder Wilford Woodruff was led in early March 1840 by the Spirit of the Lord. There Woodruff found approximately six hundred members of the 'United Brethren'—a body who had been praying for apostolic authority and the restoring of the primitive Church. At the Benbow farm and the surrounding villages, Elder Woodruff baptized the Benbows and hundreds of the United Brethren into the restored Church; many of them then gathered to Nauvoo and to Utah. John Benbow's life is a faith-promoting witness of the Lord preparing, among the humble of the earth, a people ready to receive the restored gospel when His servants came.
In Their Own Words
“In the morning, I went in secret before the Lord, and asked Him what His will was concerning me. The answer I got was that I should go to the south; for the Lord had a great work for me to perform there, as many souls were waiting for the word of the Lord. … I spent the day at Mr Benbows & preached at his house & had the testimony that there was many present that would be Saints. … They opened their doors for me to preach, and searched the Scriptures daily to see if the things which I taught were true; and on finding that the word and spirit agreed and bore record of the truth of the fullness of the everlasting gospel, they embraced it with all their hearts.”
— Wilford Woodruff, journal, 1 and 5 March 1840, and letter to the Millennial Star, 9 July 1840
Sources & References
Wilford Woodruff, journal, March 1840, and letter to the editor, Millennial Star, 9 July 1840; Carol Wilkinson and Cynthia Doxey Green, 'Wilford Woodruff's Mission to the Three Counties,' in The Field Is White (Religious Studies Center / Deseret Book, 2017) (https://rsc.byu.edu/field-white/wilford-woodruffs-mission-three-counties); 'A Most Precious Season,' Wilford Woodruff Papers (https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/media/articles/a-most-precious-season). (research confidence: high)
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