Scribes

Mormon History 1830-1844

Joseph

Bios

Scribes

Below are the names of scribes in alphabetical order, linked to activity described on this page.
Cowdery, Oliver Bullock, Thomas Clayton, William Coray, Howard Cowdery, Warren A. Gilbert, A. Sidney Grimshaw, Johnathan	Reuben Hale Hawkins, Leo Hyde, Orson Mulholland, James Parrish, Warren Hitchcock, Jesse Partridge, Edward	Phelps, W. W. Pratt, Orson Pratt, Parley P. Richards, Willard Rigdon, Sidney Robinson, George W. Sloan, James	Smith, Emma Smith, Joseph Sr. Smith, Sylvester Thompson, Robert B. Whitmer, John Whitney, Newel K. Williams, Frederick G.

Joseph's scribes in chronological order:
Emma Smith
	December 1827–February 1828	Book of Mormon
	July 1830	"And thou shalt go with him at the time of his going, and be unto him for a scribe, while there is no one to be a scribe for him, that I may send my servant, Oliver Cowdery, whithersoever I will." D&C 25:6.
Reuben Hale (Emma's brother)
	December 1827–February 1828	Book of Mormon
Martin Harris
	April 12–June 14, 1828	Book of Mormon
Oliver Cowdery
	April 5, 1829	Book of Mormon
	June–October 1830	Moses 1, Genesis 1:1–4:18
John Whitmer
	June 1829	Book of Mormon
	October–December 1830	Genesis 4:19–[5:20]
Sidney Rigdon
	December 1830–July 2, 1833	Genesis [5:21] to end Bible
Frederick G. Williams
	1832	Begins writing for Joseph on July 20, 1831. Joseph's first diary, including first account of First Vision
	August 1832–[1834]	Copies revelations into the Kirtland Revelation Book. Signs [D&C 104], August 29, 1832, p. 20; [D&C 87], not dated, p. 33.
	January 6, 1833	Revelation calls Frederick to be scribe and counselor.
	Frederick and Orson both write very legibly. Generally, Frederick's hand is compact and the letters closely connected, while Orson's tends to be larger and more spread out.
	Orson capitalizes words more frequently than Frederick.
	Frederick's initial as, ds, os, gs and Gs begin with a short upward stroke at the top-right of the bowl.. His inital ts usually begin with an upward stroke from the base line, whereas Orson usually starts his ts with a downward stroke; where there it does begin with an upward stroke, it is quite short.
	Frederick's Gs have a larger bowl than his gs, with a small curl at the bottom instead of descending below the base line.
	When writing Joseph, Frederick always uses the "long s" which is usually used as the first of a double-s. The long s looks something like an f except the descender is backward.
	Both write final ds swoops that swing back over the top of previous letters. Both also write final ds without swoops.
Algernon Sidney Gilbert
	1833	Copies Articles and Covenants and D&C 22, 42:1–73, 50, 53, 57, 61, 63, 64, 51, 83, 76, 88 into Book of Commandments, Law and Covenants, Book B.
Orson Pratt
	[1834]	Copies revelations into Kirtland Revelations Book
Orson Hyde
	August 1834	Copies revelations into the Kirtland Revelations Book signing [D&C 104] on August 18, 1834 (p. 107).
	See Frederick G. Williams above for a comparison of his hand and Orson Hyde's
W. W. Phelps
	July 1835	Called as scribe
	July–October 1835	Alphabet and Grammar
		Book of Abraham
	1841–1843	Manuscript History entries for October 1830 through October 1831 (pp. 75–157, with the exception of Notes A, B, C on pp. 131–133, which are in the hand of Willard Richards). Written between [August] 1841 and August 1843. (Dean Jessee, Joseph Smith Papers 1:367).
	William's writing is clear and legible, though not as smooth and controlled as others. It is identifiable by swooping final ds, ys, gs, and ss. The final ds are formed by an upward swoop that curves back over the top of the preceeding letters. The final ys and gs similarly curve under preceeding letters (no loops), and the ss conclude with a smaller backward loop so they look somewhat like zs.
Warren Parrish
	October 1835–April 1, 1836	Scribe for what I call Diary-2 (September 22, 1835– April 3, 1836), writing entries for October 8, 1835 to December 19, 1835, January 16, 1836 to January 22, 1836, and February 7, 1836 to April 1, 1836.
		Scribe for what I call Diary-2 rev., a third-person version of Joseph's first-person diary beginning September 22, 1835. Writes entries for November 18, 1835 to January 18, 1836 (end of document).
	November 14, 1835	Book of Abraham: "I have set by his side and penned down the translation of the Egyptian Hieroglyphicks as he claimed to receive it by direct inspiration from Heaven."
Warren A. Cowdery
	September 22, 1835–November 18, 1835	On April 3, 1836 begins writing what I call Diary-2 rev., a third-person version of Joseph's first-person diary beginning September 22, 1835. Warren Parrish takes over in the November 18, 1835 entry. (Dean Jessee, Joseph Smith Papers 1:17, 97, 143)
Jesse Hitchcock
	1836	Substitutes for Warren Parrish during his illness.
James Mulholland
	September 3, 1838	Joseph's Journal in third person, September 3 to October 6, 1838. Entries contain little more than, for example, "At home morning early also at breakfast between 7 & 8 oclock. Saw him ride out between 10 and eleven oclock and saw him at home again 9 oclock evening" (September 27, 1838).
	June 11, 1839–November 3, 1839 (death)	History of Joseph Smith
		Entries for December 14–18, 1835 are written in the third person.
Robert B. Thompson
		History of Joseph Smith
Willard Richards		See Willard the historian.
	December 13, 1841	Appointed Joseph's private secretary, general clerk and temple recorder.
	December 21, 1842	Appointed Joseph's private secretary (again) and historian. Takes over W. W. Phelps's work on the Manuscript History, starting with last word ("Revelation") on page 158, Manuscript History (A-1), introducing the text of what is now D&C 1, given November 1, 1831. Dean Jessee, Joseph Smith Papers 1:367.
	August 24, 1843	Begins second volume of Manuscript History (A-2), page 553 and continues through page 812 (Aug. 5, 1838), which is the last entry made before the death of Joseph Smith on June 27, 1844..
To be continued …
	Sources