George D. Watt, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

George D. Watt

English Mormon editor and missionary

Date of Birth: 12-May-1812

Place of Birth: Manchester, England, United Kingdom

Date of Death: 24-Oct-1881

Profession: missionary, journalist

Zodiac Sign: Taurus


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About George D. Watt

  • George Darling Watt (12 May 1812 – 24 October 1881) was the first convert to Mormonism baptized in the British Isles.
  • As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), Watt was a secretary to Brigham Young, the primary editor of the Journal of Discourses and the primary inventor of the Deseret Alphabet. Watt was born in Manchester, England.
  • While living in Preston as a young man, Watt was a member of the Reverend James Fielding's congregation.
  • Fielding's brother Joseph had joined the Latter-day Saint church in Upper Canada and had written to James about the new church.
  • In 1837, Latter-day Saint missionaries Heber C.
  • Kimball, Orson Hyde, Willard Richards, and Joseph Fielding traveled to Preston and were given permission by James Fielding to preach in his chapel. Watt was baptized a Latter-day Saint on July 30, 1837 by Heber C.
  • Kimball in the River Ribble.
  • Watt won the right to be the first official British Latter-day Saint convert by winning a footrace against eight others from Fielding's congregation that desired to join the Mormons.
  • In 1840 and 1841 Watt served as a Mormon missionary in Scotland.
  • In 1842, Watt left England to join the gathering of the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1846, Brigham Young sent Watt and his wife back to England as church missionaries.
  • Watt used his skill at Pitman shorthand in serving as a clerk to mission president George Q.
  • Cannon.
  • In late 1850, the Watts returned to America and joined the new gathering of Latter-day Saints in the Salt Lake Valley in Utah Territory. In Utah, Watt worked as a reporter for the Deseret News and as a private clerk for Brigham Young.
  • Using his skill as a stenographer, Watt began recording the sermons given by Young and other LDS Church leaders.
  • Beginning in 1853, Watt published these sermons in a periodical known as the Journal of Discourses.
  • Watt remained the primary editor of the Journal until 1868. In 1852, Watt was appointed by Young to a committee that was charged with creating a new phonetic alphabet that would assist non-English speaking Latter-day Saint immigrants learn English.
  • The result was the Deseret Alphabet.
  • Although the alphabet was largely a failure, Watt remained a strong promoter of the language system. In 1869, Watt was disfellowshipped from the LDS Church for following the teachings of dissident William S.
  • Godbe.
  • Watt was identified as one of the leaders of the "Godbeites" and was disciplined by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
  • Although Watt was initially repentant and desired to return to full fellowship in the LDS Church, by 1874 he was a devoted Godbeite and was excommunicated from the LDS Church on May 3, 1874. Later, Watt tried to return to the LDS Church.
  • Four times he attempted to rejoin the church but was denied because his beliefs differed from those of the LDS Church.
  • Upon his last visit to church president John Taylor, Watt said, "President Taylor, I want you to know that if anything happens to me before I am reinstated in the Church, it is your responsibility."Watt died in Kaysville, Utah Territory, at the age of 65, estranged from the LDS Church and its leaders.
  • Watt's obituary describes him as "honest truthful and sincere although perhaps misguided being a self-made man of strong character and exercising vast influence there is not a little in his career which is remarkable." Following his death, Taylor made a special trip to the home to say that he should be buried in his temple robes. Like many early Latter-day Saints, Watt practiced plural marriage; he had six wives.
  • One of his wives, Jane Brown, was his half sister—they shared a mother, Mary Ann Wood.

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