Elder and Sister McBride are Famous!

See original article here.



Jun 26, 2010 - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ireland will this year celebrate the 170th anniversary of the arrival of its first officially-assigned missionary. This makes the recent visit of Wendel Walton all the more poignant, as he is a direct descendant of William Black, who accompanied James McGuffie and the Apostle John Taylor on that first missionary endeavour in 1840.

Wendel Walton, a great-great-grandson of William Black, addressed local Latter-day Saints, who gathered at the Holywood Road church in Belfast, in gratitude for those early missionaries who sacrificed their time and means to share the message of the Restored
Gospel in their land.

Brother Walton is researching the William Black family and revealed some of his little-known findings. His notable ancestor was born in 1784 at 10 Castle St, Lisburn, Co. Down, and, at just 5’4” tall, he joined the army at age 16. After 21 yrs’ service, Corporal Black left the army and manufactured hosiery until the industrial revolution made home production untenable.

In 1837, William moved to Manchester, which was almost 10% Irish-born. He and his wife Jane Johnston and their four children arrived at a significant time, for Heber C Kimball and six others arrived at Liverpool on 20th July 1837, bringing the news of The Restoration to Britain.

William and Jane where converted to the gospel after meeting Elder William Clayton at a place called “Harris Cellar”. At a conference held in Manchester on the 7th July 1840 William was officially called as a missionary to Ireland and left Liverpool on the 27th July with Elder John Taylor, arriving in Warrenpoint at the head of Carlingford Lough the following day.

Elder Black and his family later immigrated to Illinois and were there in 1844 when Joseph Smith was martyred. William’s family was among the last to leave Nauvoo before embarking on the trek to the Salt Lake Basin; Jane served as a midwife on the way.
They lived in Manti and finally settled in Rockville in the St George area where William died age 89 in 1873 & Jane in 1889, 17 yrs his junior. They now have over 10,000 descendants.

Brother and Sister Walton are pictured here with Elder and Sister McBride who also left Ireland for America in the early seventies and returned this year as full-time missionaries.