James Denning was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints by his good friend, John Williams, in 1850.  The following year, 1851, James’ wife, Sarah, and her sister,  Jane Merrifield, were baptized.  In 1852, Jane Merrifield married John Williams.   We now have two young couples, best friends and sisters, preparing for their new lives as members of the this new Church in Wales.  Jobs were hard to find and Mormons were being persecuted by the local population.  To add insult to injury, Sarah and Jane’s parents disinherited them for marrying Mormon boys.

An Epistle written from Church leadership to LDS Church members on October 12, 1849, stated the following, “We want men; brethren, come from the states, from the nations, come! And help us build and grow, until we can say enough, the valleys of Ephraim are full.”  (Handcarts to Zion, 1960)

The newly called British Mission President, Elder Samuel W. Richards, asked all Saints, who could immigrate, to prepare to leave the following season, the year 1853.

With this mandate and the general hardships of life in Wales, these two young couples decided to pack what they had and make the long journey to Salt Lake Valley or as they called it, Zion.  James Denning later stated that the reasons for leaving Wales were to “secure freedom of thought” and to find relief from persecution.

Daniel and Ruth Williams, John’s parents, were the first family members to leave Wales for Utah.  They were able to pay their own expenses as part of the ten-pound company.  For the price of ten pounds, the emigrant received the following:   1) single passenger fare to New Orleans by ship, 2) fare to St. Louis, Missouri and on to Keokuk, Iowa by Steamer and 3) the expense of the wagon across the plains to Salt Lake City.  Over nine hundred people signed up for this rate, but in the end the 10 pound payment was not enough to cover all the expenses and the Church had to take out loans to help these saints complete their journey.

Note:  The actual cost of the journey ended up being as high as 15 pounds per person.  For a family to travel, the cost could be as high as fifty pounds, which was probably more than a year’s income for most of the British emigrants.  (See Philip A. M. Taylor, “Why Did British Mormons Emigrate?”)

In 1853, several thousand saints left the docks of Liverpool to begin their journey to the Salt Lake Valley.