Missionary Legends

I regularly take missionaries from the Preston Missionary Training Centre on a Church History Tour of Preston and Downham.   They are always a delightful mixture of nationalities and often full of surprises.  Last week’s tour provided the coming together of descendants from four missionary legends.

The photo above depicts the great, great, great grandchildren of (from left to right): Joseph Fielding, Heber C. Kimball, Parley P. Pratt and Samuel Smith.  All serving at the same time

“They died in peace”

This is a continuation (part three) of the Fielding Legacy story.

While Joseph Fielding was in Bedfordshire he visited the home of his sister Ann Matthews.  He recorded,

August 1^st  Called at Mr. Matthews; they were absent.  I looked into the house,  particularly I went into the Room where my Beloved Father died, on the 3^rd of March, 1836.  Here he had been nursed with all care and tenderness in his last days by his Daughter, Ann Matthews.  He died in peace.  I have often felt thankful that he and my Mother died even before the Message of the Covenant, being renewed, came to this Land, for as my Brothers & Sisters did not receive the Message, I fear they would also have rejected it through their Influence.  (Fielding, p. 49)

He shared a similar sentiment when he visited their graves in the Colmworth graveyard:

Goodly Parents

This is a continuation (part two) of the Fielding Legacy story.

Joseph, Mary and Mercy Fielding came from a rich spiritual family.

Their parents – John Fielding (1759-1836) and Rachel (1767-1828) – were both born, christened and married in Halifax, Yorkshire. Their sister Ann Fielding (Matthews) wrote a lengthy article about their mother in the Wesleyan Methodist magazine.    Ann spoke in length of how the family came to Bedfordshire.  She recorded,

The Fielding Legacy

This is the first of a six part series about the influence of the Fielding family.

The three siblings Joseph, Mary and Mercy Fielding were all born in Britain, emigrated to Canada, and converted to the restored gospel through their associations with John Taylor and Parley P. Pratt.  The Fielding trio began writing to their family members, who still lived back in England, about the new gospel they had found.  Those letters were read out by their brother James to his Preston congregation in the Vauxhall Chapel even before any missionary arrived in Britain.  Joseph wrote: