The Henrys and the Kings: Incidents Taken from the Lives of Andrew Henry, Margaret Creighton

The Henrys and the Kings: Incidents Taken from the Lives of Andrew Henry, Margaret Creighton Henry, Josephine King Thornley, Samuel A. King, William Henry King, Lillian King Hinckley, William King, Thomas Rice King, Matilda Robison King Arranged by Parnell Hinckley (great-grandson of Andrew Henry)

[No year or publisher]

The author quotes from the journal of Andrew Henry, but does not appear to say where the original document is located, or in whose possession.

There are pictures of everyone in the front. Subjectively, I would say Josephine is Andrew's daughter—she looks like him, and almost certainly more like him than she does like Joseph Smith.

______

The following information about Andrew Henry was obtained from his diary, public records, and persons who knew him personally. […]

[…] Andrew was born [page 2] in Sligo, Ireland, in about the year 1811. (The obituary in the Deseret News of August 23, 1882 states: ) "He with members of his family moved to Montreal, Canada in 1830. In 1833 he removed to New York where in 1837 he embraced the gospel under the hands of Elder Fordham. In 1838 he emigrated to Nauvoo and shared in the persecutions which were endured by the Saints."

He attended a general conference in Cameron, Hancock County, October 5, 1839. […] Andrew was ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood by Joseph and Hyrum Smith.

At the time of his call to a mission he was twenty-eight years of age. His early training as a carpenter proved to be very useful during his mission and throughout his life.

On November 28, 1840, Andrew began his missionary activities as did the apostles of old, "without purse or script." [sic] His diary is so interesting to me that I am quoting it complete as follows:

ANDREW HENRY'S JOURNAL OF TRAVELS AS A MISSIONARY

Nauvoo, November 28, 1840. Saturday.

I left Nauvoo in company with Brother Pierson […]. [page 33]

EMBARKATION FOR ENGLAND

On the 21st day of July, 1842, we bid farewell to the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. […]

[page 34]

Andrew Arrives in England

After a pleasant passage of nineteen days, we landed in Liverpool, England and on Tuesday, August 9, 1842, and on the following Sabbath I stood up for the first time in England before the Saints to lift up my feeble voice to declare what the Lord was going to do in these last days.

[page 35—describes how, apparently prior to October 1842, he first meets the Creighton family]

[page 39 begins "Volume II" of the journal, indicating that the material above was from Volume I.]

[page 50]

His Marriage

On the 26th of May, 1843, I went to Belfast and there got married to Sister Margaret Creighton of Hillsborough, and returned the same day.

After tarrying until June 6th, I then set out for Sligo […], and arrived in Sligo on the 12th of June, 1843. […]

[page 54]

[…] arrived at Brother Creighton's, having been absent for six or seven weeks….

[Therefore, it's now mid- to late July 1843]

…November 16, 1851

After a lapse of near nine [sic] years, I resume the subject of my travels and labors in the Kingdom of our God. On my arrival at Hillsborough I was gladly received by my wife and friends. I tarried here for a few weeks, and held several meetings with the Saints, where the spirit of the Lord was enjoyed.

I set out from Hillsborough in company with my wife, Sister Ellen Hutchinson and her husband, and Sister Jane [page 55] Turner, and arrived in Belfast after a few hours drive. Here we dined and in the evening went aboard a steamer bound for Liverpool. After taking a last farewell of our weeping friends and taking the last fond look at the land of our nativity, the shades of night closed around us and the shores faded from our view.

After a rough and stormy night, during which we suffered from cold and rain, we landed at Liverpool in the morning of the 23rd of August, 1843 […]. The next day we took lodging at the house of Brother Heslip and stayed with him two weeks. […] [Therefore the events below occur after September 7, 1843.]

[…] I was at length sent to Manchester to labor under the direction of Elder Charles Miller, bearing a letter at the same time instructing him to see my wife provided for during my absences.

But this duty was never performed by him. We went to lodge at the house of Brother William Wilson, who made us comfortable as his circumstances would allow. But he being a hosier and trade being very dull his means were very limited and we had to fare accordingly.

Andrew Henry

(The end of his Diary.)

[…] The balance of his mission was spent in England […].

[page 56]

[The author here inserts a brief reminiscence by John Hamilton, who married "the third daughter of John and Mary Creighton.":]

[…] we arrived in Liverpool [heading toward Nauvoo] the 1st day of January 1843. We had to stay in Liverpool on account of high winds, till the 16th before we sailed. After a pleasant voyage we landed in New Orleans on the 15th of March 1843. […] On the night of the 17th of March we sailed up the Mississippi River in a steam boat […]. It was a very hard winter up north and the water was very low and could not come [sic] much speed. When we got to St. Louis we had to take a lighter boat to take us to Nauvoo and wait eleven days there till the river broke up and we landed in Nauvoo on the 12th of April 1843. [I include the above account to show travel times from Liverpool to Nauvoo. Although the four week journey from New Orleans is described as being atypically slow, the three months it took to get to New Orleans from Liverpool was the travel time during "a pleasant journey," and therefore likely to be an average journey time, if not even shorter. Since Andrew and Margaret Henry clearly left Liverpool after the first week of September (and probably substantially after this), they can be safely assumed to have not arrived in New Orleans until some time after the first week of December. They would then have needed to travel from New Orleans to Nauvoo, traveling in wintery conditions like the Hamiltons. They would have arrived there no sooner than late December 1843.

This would be the earliest they could have arrived in Nauvoo had they left in the second week of September, but Andrew Henry's account shows that he continued his mission for some time after this, traveling to at least one other city (Manchester) and subsequently relocating his wife at least once before the couple left England. This places their arrival in Nauvoo no sooner than mid-January 1844. Josephine was reportedly born on June 8 of that year. Even if Joseph Smith had had Margaret Henry married to him as she stepped from the ship, her baby would have had to survive being born before the end of the second trimester. Family records therefore refute the claim put forward by Edwin Mace that Josephine Henry was fathered by the prophet Joseph Smith. She was not.

The author's further account only strengthens this conclusion:]

[page 57]

The last date recorded by Andrew in his diary was on August 23, 1843 while still in the Liverpool area. The date of his departure for America or the ship in which he sailed has not been determined. However, early in the year of 1844, they landed at New Orleans. They sailed up the Mississippi River to Nauvoo where they arrived in time to experience the murder of the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum Smith. It [page 57] was there in Nauvoo on June the 8th, 1844, that their only child was born and given the name of Josephine.

[page 64]

Margaret Creighton Henry 1817-1886

[…] [page 65]

Andrew's experiences were not so satisfying for the remainder of his mission, partly due to the need for providing care for his wife. The couple left England for America early in the year of 1844. He mentioned his wife again when reported the battle of Nauvoo as follows: "If the mob comes again they will me on hand and my wife too […]."

[The above reference to Andrew "mentioning his wife" is puzzling. Earlier in this account of Margaret's life, Andrew's journal was quoted; so presumably the source quoted here is also his journal. But this quotation is not in his journal as presented earlier in the book. In any case, it appears that Andrew Henry kept a record that included the time after his arrival in the US, which suggests that the detail presented here of his departure from Liverpool in early 1844 likely comes from his own records, even more decisively refuting the claimed parentage of Josephine.]

[End of relevant material regarding Andrew, Margaret, and Josephine Henry.]

Hinckley, Parnell, The Henrys and the Kings: Incidents Taken from the Lives of Andrew Henry, Margaret Creighton Henry, Josephine King Thornley, Samuel A. King, William Henry King, Lillian King Hinckley, William King, Thomas Rice King, Matilda Robison King, n.p. n.d.