Wilford Woodruff's inspired move to the Benbow farm

On March 3, 1840, in direct fulfillment of the Lord's instruction to him, Wilford Woodruff traveled from the Potteries toward Herefordshire. After a forty-eight-mile journey by coach through Wolverhampton, Dudley, Stourbridge, Stourport, and Worcester, followed by a walk, he arrived at Hill Farm in Castle Frome, Ledbury, the home of John Benbow. Mr. Benbow was a wealthy farmer cultivating three hundred acres, and he and his wife, Jane, received Elder Woodruff with great gladness. Within this region—a farming area where no Latter-day Saint elder had previously visited—Woodruff discovered the 'United Brethren,' an independent society of approximately six hundred individuals led by Thomas Kington. Elder Woodruff preached to the household and their associates that same evening. The work spread with great power; he baptized Kington, forty-eight preachers, and one hundred and twenty members of the society, eventually bringing over six hundred souls into the Church. When the local Church of England ministers attempted to hinder his work, they sent three church clerks to observe his proceedings, but Woodruff baptized all three. A constable arrived to arrest him for preaching, but Woodruff baptized him as well. Woodruff even baptized the parish rector and his clerks. The rector became so alarmed by these conversions that he ceased sending anyone else to oppose the missionary's efforts.