Why
leave a comfortable life in England, and risk a fifty-day voyage to
America? During the period of emigration
from 1840 to 1890, employers, family, and friends tried to dissuade Latter-day
Saints (known as Mormons) from leaving Liverpool for “the promised land.”
“The
British Saints launched their first maritime immigration to Nauvoo, Illinois
(via New York) with the voyage of the Britannia on 6 June 1840, ... from the port of Liverpool ... Twenty-one-year-old convert Thomas Callister
left his homeland, the Isle of Man, 9 January 1842, to embark for Nauvoo. He wrote, ‘I left all my relatives and friends
for the gospel sake.’ … Robert
Crookston … recalled, ‘We had to sell everything at a great sacrifice. But we
wanted to come to Zion and be taught by the Prophet of God. We had the spirit of gathering so strongly
that Babylon had no claim on us.’ Continual
guidance was given in minute detail …” to help the emigrants make the
journey. “By mid-nineteenth century, it
was considered the most active international port of emigration in the world.” – The
Tide of Mormon Migration Flowing Through the Port of Liverpool, England, Volume
1 (©2013 published in the United Kingdom) by Fred E. Woods.
Near
the River Mersey docks (area now called the Waterfront) of Liverpool was the
residence of the boy George Q. Cannon and his parents, George and Ann (Quayle)
Cannon from the Isle of Man. Elder John
Taylor, father George’s brother-in-law, was called from Toronto to serve a
mission in England for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Arrived in Liverpool 11 January 1840, he taught
the gospel to the Cannon Family including five children, and found comfort in
their home at 43 Norfolk Street as headquarters during his ministry in England,
Ireland, and the Isle of Man. To this
hospitable home the Apostle brought his companion, Elder Parley P. Pratt, who had arrived in England three months later. George Cannon gave notice to his Liverpool
employer 3 September 1842. “He had
previous to this offered me five shilling a week more wages … Saturday morning about nine o’clock, 17th of Sept., 1842, we hauled out of the Waterloo dock on board the ship Sidney
[450 tons], Captain Cowan [with 180 LDS passengers bound for New Orleans], and
were towed by a steamer past the light ship …
On Sunday, the 18th, we all left Liverpool in good spirits … We are now launched on the bosom of the
mighty deep, and sea-sickness has made the passengers for the most part very
ill. My dear Ann is dreadfully affected
with this nauseous sickness, perhaps more so on account of her pregnancy.” As reported in the Millennial Star January 1843, Ann Quayle Cannon died aboard the
ship 28 October 1842. – Cannon Family Historical Treasury
(©1967 published by George Cannon Family Association) edited by Beatrice Cannon
Evans and Janath Russell Cannon.
“By
1851, the British census noted that Liverpool had a population of 367,000, the
second largest city in all of England.
Nearly 90,000 Latter-day Saint converts [including many Scandinavians]
migrated through the city during the nineteenth century.” – Pioneer,
Volume 62, Number 2, 2015, published by the Sons of Utah Pioneers,
"Gathering Early Saints through Liverpool", by Fred E. Woods, BYU Department of Church History and Doctrine.
“Between
1830 and 1930 about forty million people left Europe in search of a new and
better life. About nine million of them
sailed from Liverpool, mainly travelling to North America, Australia and New
Zealand …”
–
www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/kids/games-quizzes/emigrants/
Since
I drove a sleek VW diesel out of Liverpool 17 August 2015, and endured a few hours of travel home to Utah, my heart has filled
with gratitude for sacrifices made by my ancestors and others. I will never forget leaving Liverpool.
Docks at Liverpool Waterfront and River Mersey
View of Norfolk Street in Liverpool, and River Mersey
View up Norfolk Street, approximately from #43; (all old commercial now)
