Before he was a counselor in Brigham Young’s First Presidency, before he was a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, when he was an elder with less than two years’ membership in the Church, Willard Richards was called as a missionary to England. He served there for more than three years, baptizing, establishing branches, being ordained there as an apostle by Brigham Young, marrying Jennetta Richards (Richards was both her maiden and married name), and establishing almost a legendary reputation as a successful missionary.

One incident that happened on his mission, appearing several times in the Millennial Star, in the History of the Church, in the biography of Heber C. Kimball (Richards’ fellow missionary), and in histories of the Church in England, is reported this way:

Sister Alice Hodgin died at Preston on the second of September, 1838, and it was such a wonderful thing for a Latter-day Saint to die in England, that Elder Richards was arraigned before the Mayor’s Court at Preston, on the third of October, charged with “killing and slaying” the said Alice with a “black stick,” &c., but was discharged without being permitted to make his defence, as soon as it was discovered that the iniquity of his accusers was about to be made manifest.

There are minor variations in wording in the various publications, but no additional detail. What is always present is the sarcasm, the sense of persecution, and the iniquity of Richards’ accusers. I haven’t been able to find that anyone knows more of the story, at least not in any LDS source. I don’t know that I’m the first to tell the story in a fuller form – and it would be extraordinary for me to contribute anything new to Church history in the Joseph Smith era – but here’s the story, anyway:

Alice Hodgson (not Hodgin) (1815-1838) was the married daughter of Ann Dawson, one of the first nine converts to the Church in England, baptized in the River Ribble at Preston in 1837 I don’t at the moment know when Alice was baptized (her baptism date has been obscured in Family Search by an unnecessary 1976 duplicate ordinance), but she was a member of the Church, and participated in the branch organized in her widowed mother’s home in Preston. She knew Willard Richards and the other missionaries well, as they had their lodgings in her mother’s home.

Late in July or early in August 1838, Alice Hodgson gave birth to a baby in the Miles and Alice Hodgson home in Everton Gardens, a street in Preston remembered in part because it was the location of a public dispensary (pharmacy) opened in 1809 and dedicated to “relief of the sick and inform poor.” The photo here (published by Preston Digital Archive) was taken in 1936, a century after Alice lived here.

For about two weeks after delivering her baby, Alice did well. Then she took some sort of infection and became extremely ill. A doctor, Mr. Spencer of Church Street, was called to treat her.

We can’t be entirely sure what happened next – all details come from sources hostile to and ignorant of Mormonism – all we know from the Mormon side is the sarcastic paragraph quoted above. Dr. Spencer, however, claimed that Alice Hodgson was recovering from her illness under his treatment – although it’s hard to believe that the doctor, without antibiotics and with the primitive and often harmful medical treatments in use at that date had anything to do with her recovery.

But Ann Dawson wanted to nurse Alice – probably had been from the very beginning; it seems unlikely that she had not been in frequent, if not constant, attendance on Alice since the birth of the baby. The claims of Dr. Spencer and his supporters, however, make it appear that Ann suddenly appeared out of nowhere, prompted by the orders of Willard Richards and others, and took over Alice’s care: “It was supposed that Ann Dawson, the mother of [Alice Hodgson] was prompted to assume the medical care of her daughter by the priests of her sect, for her declaration was that ‘The Lord’s work and the doctor’s work would not agree.’”

It does seem entirely possible, in my opinion, that Ann Dawson dismissed the doctor over a conflict in treatment, and that her dismissal may have included some words about relying on the Lord. Even at that early day, Mormonism did not require shunning medical care, although turning to the elders was always encouraged. I’ve seen several accounts from our early presence in England that suggest the assumption (whether justified or not, I do not know) that Mormons were solely faith healers. Willard Richards, though, did have a brief experience at this point with Thomsonian medicine (an alternative medical practice based on the use of a few key herbs) – so while the conflict between Dr. Spencer’s treatment and that favored by Ann Dawson and promoted by Willard Richards may have centered on science (such as it was at that date) and faith healing, or, just as likely, it was a conflict between two theories of medical practice.

Two elements of the story support that both professional conflict and scorn for Mormon religious practices played a role in what followed.

First, Ann provided a drink of ginger tea with cayenne pepper for Alice to drink – that fits with the herbal aspect of Willard Richards’ Thomsonian beliefs, and may have come after consultation with him. Ginger and cayenne pepper were two of the ingredients in the “composition tea” favored by Brigham Young. Ann also rubbed Alice’s body with alcohol – rum, according to Dr. Spencer, a treatment he referred to as “highly improper” but which, in my entirely layman’s view, sounds like an attempt to bring down a fever associated with Alice’s infection.

And second, there was an element of treatment leaning very much toward faith healing, and one that is going to sound odd, perhaps even alarming, to some Mormon readers. Remember that cryptic reference to a “black stick” in the paragraph quoted at the top of this post? That was Elder Richards’ walking stick. Although he had been at Alice’s bedside, praying with her and (it’s not entirely clear in the reports generated by non-Mormons who did not understand our practices) almost certainly administering to her in priesthood blessings for health, at some point during the several weeks of Ann’s treatment of Alice, Richards sent his walking stick to Alice for her to keep in her bed.

What was that all about? Perhaps readers immediately recalled something that would happen a little later in Nauvoo: When cholera broke out among the Mormons arriving there as refugees from the Missouri experience, everyone called for healing blessings from Joseph Smith. He couldn’t be everywhere, attending to everyone, and he sent his handkerchief to one sufferer, telling the family to exercise faith. This practice, known as “material healing,” is rarely if ever seen today, but was far from unknown in the early 20th century. Perhaps some believed that such tokens, sent from someone they revered, held special powers of healing; others may simply have used the objects as a focus for their faith. In any case, this seems to have been what happened during the illness of Alice Hodgson: Willard Richards sent her his cane with his blessing, or even at her request – one source says that Richards “had a stick, which was supposed to possess some charm, and which, at the request of [Alice Hodgson], was placed in the bed with her.”

Alice was too sick to survive, though, in an age without antibiotics. She died on September 2.

It took almost a month for wagging tongues and animosity toward Mormonism to culminate in the arrest of both Willard Richards and Ann Dawson for the supposed murder of Alice Hodgson. They were arraigned at the bar in Preston’s Town Hall, charged with “killing and slaying [that term later mocked by Richards for its redundancy – but such doublets are a longstanding feature of legal terminology and not as ridiculous as he though] a young woman named Alice Hodgson, daughter of the defendant, Dawson.”

Carrying on in a manner anything but neutral, the record claims:

that the deceased had been confined in child birth, on which occasion she was attended by Mr. Spencer, surgeon, Church-street, and that whilst under his judicious treatment she made most favourable approaches to a perfect recovery of health and strength. This happy consummation was, however, doomed to be frustrated by the interference of a rascally system of fraud and folly being practised upon the poor creature; for the medical gentleman was desired to discontinue his visits, and he further use of medicine prohibited. The deceived dupe was then enjoined by the two accused persons entirely to rely on the treatment which they would adopt for her recovery.

Well, the stupid system was then commenced, and it consisted in rubbing the body of the poor creature with rum, and giving her tea, made of what? – Cayenne pepper at one time, and ginger at another. The criminal absurdities, however, were not allowed to rest here: she was next impressed with the notion that these applications were mere secondary agents, and that the prime restorative was unlimited faith – but in what? Not in that Omnipotent Being who can slay and make alive again – bring down to the grave, and, by his all merciful goodness, raise the enfeebled frame of man to enjoy again the blessings of health and strength. No, He that is all good to hear, and almighty to save, was disregarded and forgotten, and the virtue of healing was to be obtained from – we blush to name the blasphemous profanation – the walking-stick of the elder.

The virtue of healing he said had been found to exist in the garments of St. Paul, and, therefore, it was also concealed in the elder’s walking-stick. The silly woman then absolutely had the stick put into her bed, and, in an abandonment of reason and common sense, she persuaded herself to expect a benefit from pressing it with her hands. This was the system which the elder enjoined, and which the worse than idolatrous devotee was weak enough to put in practice. We need not say what was the melancholy result, for who that is possessed of any share of penetration but must have already anticipated it? She survived for rather more than a fortnight, and then death drew the curtain over the deceit.

In the paragraph that has made its way into Mormon history, Elder Richards says that he was not permitted to make his defense, as if he had been wronged in the court. However, records of the incident show that he did make a defense.

Richards said that he had had nothing to do with the deceased whatever, except as to praying with her, and spiritually advising with her.

The magistrates – in another example added to so many I’ve earlier brought out, of English commitment to the rule of law regardless of a court officer’s personal opinions of Mormonism – “did not think the case strong enough to justify them in sending the prisoners to trial, and they were accordingly liberated.” While acting according to law, the magistrates, or one of them, did take the occasion to lecture Elder Richards by expressing the hope “that the ignorant and fanatical dupes of this new system of priestcraft would see their error, and abandon so mischievous and wicked a profession.”

There is nothing in the record that supports the claim made in the original paragraph that the court discharged Willard Richards and Ann Dawson “as soon as it was discovered that the iniquity of his accusers was about to be made manifest.” Rather, the magistrates heard testimony from both sides, decided there were no legal grounds to proceed further, and dropped the charges.

If anyone is aware of this story having been told before now, I would be appreciative, if disappointed, to have it pointed out to me. Otherwise, I’m going to hope that, astoundingly, I may actually have contributed something new to our understanding of early Mormon history.