1834–1903

Introduction

Born: June 19, 1834, God­man­ches­ter, Cam­bridge­shire, Eng­land.

Died: Oc­to­ber 18, 1903, Ne­bras­ka.

Buried: Wy­uka Ce­me­te­ry, Ne­bras­ka Ci­ty, Ne­bras­ka.

Biography

Forscutt joined the Mor­mon (LDS) Church as a 19-year­old in 1853, caus­ing his fa­ther to dis­own him and make him move out of his child­hood home. From 1855–60, Fors­cutt was an LDS mis­sion­ary in Eng­land.

In March 1860, he mar­ried Eli­za­beth Uns­worth. On their wed­ding day, he and his wife be­gan their move to Ut­ah, in­tend­ing to join the LDS ga­ther­ing in Salt Lake City.

Upon ar­riv­ing, he be­came a sec­re­ta­ry to LDS pre­si­dent Brig­ham Young. Short­ly af­ter his ar­riv­al, For­scutt be­gan to learn about the LDS prac­tice of plur­al mar­riage, which he had not been aware of pre­vi­ous­ly.

This dis­co­ve­ry, com­bined with oth­er dis­agree­ments with Brig­ham Young, led For­scutt to leave the LDS Church.

He be­came af­fi­li­at­ed with a group led by Jo­seph Mor­ris. He was an apos­tle in the Mor­ris­ite or­ga­ni­za­tion and was in­volved in the 1861 Mor­ris­ite War.

After these in­ci­dents, Fors­cutt joined the Unit­ed States Ar­my unit at Fort Doug­las in Salt Lake Ci­ty, and was sta­tioned in Ru­by Val­ley (now Ne­va­da) be­fore re­turn­ing to Salt Lake Ci­ty.

In 1865, Fors­cutt joined the Re­formed LDS (RLDS) Church in Salt Lake Ci­ty. He soon left the ter­ri­to­ry, fear­ing for his life as an apos­tate from the LDS Church.

Forscutt became a close per­son­al friend of Jo­seph Smith III, and lat­er served as a full-time RLDS mis­sio­nary in Eng­land and the So­ci­ety Is­lands.

Works

He was a co­py­ist in the pro­cess that led to the 1866 pub­li­ca­tion of the Jo­seph Smith Trans­la­tion of the Bi­ble in 1866.

Forscutt also com­posed a num­ber of hymns and ed­it­ed Saints’ Har­mo­ny, an RLDS hym­nal pub­lished in 1889.

Sources

Lyrics

Help Needed

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Fors­cutt (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),