Saturday, June 12, 2021

Was Joseph Smith Sr. an Anabaptist?

 

There has been some confusion among historians because of the signature of a Joseph Smith in the township records identifying himself as an “Anabaptist.” Tunbridge Proprietors Book,” 443, (see Dan Vogel, ed., Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1996), 1:636-637). The record was filled out by local town clerk Hezekiah Hutchinson as part of a large packet of records submitted by Chelsea Township clerk David Crocker. Chelsea is the township on the northern border of Tunbridge. All of Crocker’s petitions were for those attending the Baptist congregation in Chelsea, and in the petition Hutchinson included, he noted the signees were “separate from all other Denominations Except those called by the Name or Appelation of Anabaptists.” He did not say they belonged to the Anabaptists. It is clear the Hutchinson’s petition was part of the larger packet of Crocker petitions. It was completed November 12, 1799, but it was recorded in 1802 along with the other Chelsea Baptist records completed over several years. There were many Baptists in the area, but there was not an Anabaptist congregation. The other Joseph Smith who married Hannah Fifield and lived in Tunbridge on the northern border convenient to the Chelsea congregation was likely a Baptist. Crocker filled out a separate petition for his brother, Stephen Smith, earlier that same year (see June 10, 1799 Petition, Tunbridge Proprietors Book, 188; for their* relationship, see Child, Gazetteer of Orange County, Vermont, 1762-1888, 344). The Chelsea Baptist congregation was too far away for Joseph Smith who was the son of Mary and Asael Smith to conveniently attend, and Lucy makes it clear in her narrative that her husband only attended the Methodist meetings with her because she desired it. (Mark L. Staker and Donald L. Enders, Joseph and Lucy Smith’s Tunbridge Farm: An Archaeology and Landscape Study [Independence, Miss.: John Whitmer Books, 2021], 102-3 n. 11)