Come, Come Ye Saints

Liz Kennington

July is a great month particularly for Utah Latter-day Saints. We begin the month celebrating Independence Day, the birth of our nation, and end the month honoring our pioneer ancestors. For me July also represents a reminder of some of my ancestors who have made a lasting impact on the Church in general. This is because two of my ancestors were musically inclined and shared that talent with those around them.

William H. Clayton was born on July 17, 1814 in Penwortham, Lancashire, England. In 1836, he began investigating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. By October 1837 he was baptized, and in April 1838 he was ordained a high priest. He quit his job as a factory clerk to devote himself full time to missionary service. He served in the presidency of the British mission with Joseph Fielding and Willard F. Richards.

In September 184o, Clayton led a group of Saints to America and settled in Iowa Territory, and later in Nauvoo. He became the clerk and scribe to Joseph Smith. While serving as a scribe for Joseph Smith, he recorded the revelation on plural marriage. Because the practice of polygamy was initially secret, Clayton had to deal with the rumors about the practice both in the church and community.

In 1846, Clayton left Nauvoo with the first Latter-day Saint group under the direction of Brigham Young, serving as Brigham Young’s recording scribe. Clayton left behind his third plural wife, Diantha Farr Clayton, who was pregnant with their first child. Diantha was William Clayton’s first American born wife. She remained in Nauvoo with her parents, Winslow and Olive Farr, my 3rd great grandparents.

In April 1846, while camped near Locust Creek, Iowa, he received word of the birth of his son, William Adriel Benoni Clayton. To the tune of “All is Well” a traditional English song, Clayton wrote the words of the hymn that has become known as “Come, Come Ye Saints.” In Clayton’s own words: “I feel to thank my heavenly father for my boy and pray that he will spare and preserve his life and that of his mother and so order it so that we may soon meet again.”

Another ancestor of mine is William Clayson, born in Wilby, Northamptonshire, England on February 9, 1840. While working on a threshing machine in 1850, William’s left foot was caught in the cylinders and was so mangled that about one half of his foot had to be amputated. When he recovered, he apprenticed to learn the shoemaking trade. It was also about this time that he learned how to play the flute.

It was during the time that William worked in the shoe shop in nearby Willingborough that he heard of the Mormons and their religion. While his family attended the Established (Episcopal) Church, they had not given much serious thought to religious matters. After hearing the elders, William and his sister Emma were converted and baptized. Their parents, however, were not thrilled with their choice. “If they felt they must be baptized, she wished they would be baptized into a decent Church.”

After courting and becoming betrothed to Susan Moulton, Clayson sailed for the US and traveled West with a company in 1861, arriving in September in the Salt Lake Valley While traveling west, William played his flute as fellow emigrants danced in the evenings. He eventually settled in Payson, Utah where he worked in the George W. Hancock Shoe Shop. In 1863, he sent for Susan Moulton, and they were married in December 1863, and remarried in the Endowment House in 1866.

In the 1860s, he organized an orchestra used for dances and theaters until 1883. During the 1870s Joseph L. Townsend came to Payson, and the two men were called to serve in the Payson Sunday School presidency. By the late 70s Townsend brought the words to songs that he had written to Clayson so he could put the words to music. Many of these songs were used in the local Sunday School and later became part of our hymnbook. Their songs include: “The Iron Rod”, “Hope of Israel”, and “O Thou Rock of Our Salvation” to name just a few.

July is a great month for us all to reflect on those who have come before us and the efforts they made in accepting the gospel and then acting upon their covenants. Whether our ancestors were some of the first who joined the Church in the early days or just a few short years ago, we should be striving to make the same kinds of efforts they did when they first heard the Gospel.