Dreams

James Leech's Mother Dreams the Gospel Would Return to the Earth — Fulfilled by the 1837 Preston Mission

Published September 28, 2026 at 5:28 AM

1830s · 1835
Preston, Lancashire, England
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In 1835, the mother of young James Leech of Preston, England — a deeply religious woman — woke in the night and related to her husband a dream or vision in which it was shown her that the gospel was going to come to the earth again as it was in the days of the Savior. Two years later, in 1837, the restored gospel was first heralded in old England at Preston by President Heber C. Kimball with Joseph Fielding, Orson Hyde, and Willard Richards. James Leech, then a boy, recorded that his mother's dream was fulfilled to her satisfaction, and she was one of the first to embrace the gospel, followed soon after by three of her daughters. The family later gathered with the Saints to Nauvoo, where Leech became personally acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith.

In Their Own Words

“In the year 1835 I remember waking in the night and hearing my mother, who was a very religious and good woman, relating a dream or vision she had just had to my father. In this dream it had been shown to her that the gospel was going to come to the earth again as it was in the days of our Savior. In 1837 the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it was taught anciently, came to old England, and was first heralded in Preston by President Heber C. Kimball, Brothers Joseph Fielding, Orson Hyde and Willard Richards. My mother's dream was fulfilled to her satisfaction, and she was one of the first to embrace the gospel. My three sisters joined soon after, but my father did not do so for some time.”

— James Leech, Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Juvenile Instructor (1892)

Sources & References

'Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith' (Elder James Leech), The Juvenile Instructor 27 (1892); full text: http://earlymormonism.com/joseph-smith-1805-1844-2/

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