Frederick G. Williams

A Thomsonian physician who became Joseph Smith’s scribe in 1832, a counselor in the presidency in 1833, and very likely the draftsman of the plat of the city of Zion.

Frederick Granger Williams (1787–1842) had been a ship’s pilot, teacher and physician before he joined the church in Kirtland in 1830. His skills as a clerk and surveyor put him at the center of the records of 1832–1833, including the plat and the plan of the house.

Background

Born 28 October 1787 at Suffield, Connecticut. Practiced the Thomsonian botanical system of medicine, worshipped with Sidney Rigdon’s Reformed Baptist congregation, and moved to Kirtland in 1830.

1830

Baptized and ordained an elder in October or November by the missionaries led by Oliver Cowdery, and accompanied them to the Missouri frontier.

1831

Ordained a high priest at Orange, Ohio, on 25 October.

1832

Appointed clerk and scribe to Joseph Smith on 20 July.

1833

Attended the organizing meeting of the School of the Prophets in January, and was called into the presidency in March. A member of the United Firm from 1833. Very likely began drafting the plat of the city of Zion that spring; he was one of three men who reported a vision of the house on 3 June, and recorded the plat’s text into Joseph Smith’s letterbook between 20 and 25 June.

1834

Sat in the presidency when the Kirtland high council was organized in February. Consecrated roughly 142 acres in Kirtland by deed to Joseph Smith, and marched with Zion’s Camp.

Reading the record

Williams is the clearest example in the record of a convert whose practical training shaped the church’s documents. A surveyor’s hand lies behind the plat, and a clerk’s behind the letterbook copies through which much of 1832–1833 survives.

After 1834

He edited the Northern Times in 1835 and served in the presidency until 1837. He died in 1842. The Joseph Smith Papers biography covers the rest of his life.

Biographical details follow the biographical entry for Frederick G. Williams in the Joseph Smith Papers, checked against the dated documents cited on this site’s chronology pages. This page links out to primary sources rather than reproducing them at length.