Mormons

Mormons Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which was founded in New York in 1830 by Joseph Smith (1805–44). He claimed to have discovered, through divine revelation, the ‘Book of Mormon’, relating the history of a group of Hebrews who migrated to America c.600 BC. This work is accepted by Mormons as Scripture along with the Bible. A further revelation led him to institute polygamy, a practice that brought the Mormons into conflict with the Federal Government and was abandoned in 1890. Smith was succeeded as leader by Brigham Young (1801–77), who moved the Mormon headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1847. Mormon teaching is strongly adventist; the movement has no professional clergy, self-help is emphasized, and tithing and missionary work are required of its members.

Mormons, members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which has its origin in an American populist revolt against official religion in the ‘burned over district’ of upstate New York in the early 1830s. The first Mormon missionaries arrived in Britain in 1837 and in Ireland three years later. In terms of membership statistics the Mormons made a modest impression in the period 1840–55, then underwent a century of relative stagnation before experiencing a period of remarkable growth after 1950, when missionaries from the USA arrived in considerable numbers. The first purpose‐built Mormon chapel in Ireland opened in Belfast in 1963, and in 1985, in a quaint ceremony at Loughbrickland, Co. Tyrone, where the first Irish convert had been baptized in 1840, Ireland was solemnly dedicated for the preaching of the Mormon gospel.

David Hempton

Mormons Adventist sect, the full name of which is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was established (1830) in Manchester, New York, USA, by Joseph Smith. Believing that they were to found Zion, or a New Jerusalem, Smith and his followers moved west. They tried to settle in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, but were driven out. Joseph Smith was murdered in Illinois in 1844. Brigham Young then rose to leadership, and in 1846–47 took the Mormons to Utah.