Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources: Edward Partridge

Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources: Edward Partridge, Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources (2025)

Edward Partridge, Doctrine and Covenants Historical Resources (2025)

Edward Partridge

(1793–1840)

Edward Partridge was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In 1819 he married Lydia Clisbee. Partridge was baptized by Joseph Smith in December 1830 and was ordained an elder by Sidney Rigdon four days later. In February 1831, in Kirtland, Ohio, Partridge was appointed the first bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was given the responsibility to administer the law of consecration among the Saints (Doctrine and Covenants 41; 42:30–36; 51). He continued to serve as bishop until his death.

In the summer of 1831, Partridge traveled with Joseph Smith to Jackson County, Missouri, where he helped oversee the settlement of the migrating Saints by purchasing and administering stewardships of land. In April 1832, he was designated a member of the United Firm. When mob violence broke out against the Saints in Missouri in July 1833, he was tarred and feathered. With his family, he fled from Jackson County to Clay County, Missouri, and later to what became Caldwell County, Missouri. He also served as a missionary in 1835 to Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio and then to New York and New England. In the fall of 1838, he was imprisoned in the Richmond, Missouri, jail. In 1839, he was expelled from Missouri with the rest of the Saints and moved to Commerce, Illinois, which was later renamed Nauvoo.

References in the Doctrine and Covenants

Doctrine and Covenants 35, 36, 41, 42, 50, 51, 52, 57, 58, 60, 64, 82, 115, 124