James Mulholland: The Irish Scribe Who Recorded Joseph Smith's History — and Died Before It Was Finished

James Mulholland (1804 – November 3, 1839) was born in Ireland, converted to the Church in Upper Canada, and eventually made his way to Nauvoo, where he became one of the most important scribes in Church history.

On September 3, 1838, Mulholland commenced writing for Joseph Smith. His assignment was monumental: to record the official History of the Church — the foundational documentary account of the Restoration from Joseph Smith's own perspective. It was Mulholland who wrote the earliest extant handwritten draft of the 1838 account of Joseph Smith's First Vision.

His work was interrupted by the Missouri persecution and Joseph's imprisonment. When Joseph returned to Nauvoo in early 1840 after escaping Missouri imprisonment, Mulholland resumed the work — but died suddenly on November 3, 1839, before the history was completed.

When Joseph Smith returned to Nauvoo in March 1840, he lamented the passing of his 'faithful scribe' and expressed deep disappointment that the history had again been interrupted. Joseph wrote of Mulholland with genuine affection and sorrow.

Robert Thompson took over after Mulholland's death, only to die soon after as well. The history was eventually completed by Willard Richards. Mulholland's hand — preserved in the original manuscripts — is the first to have written the sacred First Vision account that billions of people have since read. His faithful service, cut short by death, stands as a testimony of devoted discipleship.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844 (Second Edition)):

As evidence of the challenges he faced, by October 29, 1839, when Joseph left Nauvoo for Washington, D.C., to present the Missouri grievances of his people before the federal government, only fifty-nine pages of his history had been written; and six days after his departure, his scribe, James Mulholland, died. Not until June 1839, shortly after his arrival in Illinois from his six-month confinement in Missouri, and again only one month after moving his family into a small log house near Commerce (later Nauvoo), Illinois, to begin anew the process of community building, did Joseph Smith turn his attention back to writing the history. Dictating to James Mulholland, Joseph continued the work he had commenced the previous year—a work that some sixty years later would be edited by the Church historian Brigham H. Roberts and published in six volumes as the History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Period I, History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, by Himself.