- Stories about the life of James Timbrell Worlton can be found under Documents. Not finding the documents mentioned, I shall record some information on his life here.
James Timbrell Worlton was born on March 20, 1821, the oldest child of John and Mary Parsons Worlton. Although born in Bath, Timbrell spent part of his boyhood with his father's family in London which is where he first heard the gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Eventually, the family returned to Bath where John worked as a shoemaker and schooled his son in the craft.
In 1837, when Timbrell was 16 years old, his father suddenly died and he, his mother and two younger sisters fell heir to John's one-fourth share of Timbrell's Court. (A fourth child, Benjamin Timbrell was christened August 8, 1830, but evidently did not survive, since nothing more is heard of him.) The family lived in the main house which faced down the street between two rows of cottages.
Timbrell was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1840 when he was 19 years old, becoming part of the Bath Branch then presided over by Elder Thomas Brown. (Official Church records show Timbrell's baptism date to be 1843, but that is probably because the earlier records were lost and he was rebaptized.) He was ordained an elder and preached the gospel to his neighbors and associates.
On July 27, 1842, Timbrell married Emma Mary Martin, who also joined the Church. Emma was born in 1820, the daughter of James and Ann Austin Martin. (Emma's family can be traced back to 1600 -seven generations before Emma.
Emma gave birth to Emma Ann (Annie), January 17, 1844, and John, September 14, 1846, in Bristol. Timbrell "continued to labor for the support of his family and to preach on street corners...(He) was soon called to preside over a small branch of the Church in Somerset."
Not long after John's birth Emma became ill and on August 31, 1848, at the age of 28, she died of ovarian disease, leaving Timbrell with "two helpless children." (Annie was four and a half and John was not quite two.).......
Following Emma's death, Timbrell met Elizabeth Bourne, a "young sister in the church," and on December 3, 1848, they were married, two weeks before her 21st birthday. It is easy to understand his haste to marry again, since he obviously had to have help with his children, and surely was lonely as well.
1849 was a busy year for the new family. Timbrell was called by the Church to preside over a branch in Marchfield, England, and on September 14, John's third birthday Martha was born. Another daughter was added to the family on May 9, 1851, and they called her Flora. The same year almost the entire branch in Marchfield emigrated to Utah, and Timbrell returned to Bath to practice and preach. He and Lille were most disappointed not to be able to accompany their congregation to Zion, but they did not have the means.
Eventually, Timbrell was able to sell his interest in Timbrell's Court. He promptly placed the L50 he gained into the Perpetual Emigration Fund, and the family left immediately for Zion. ...
They left Bath February 8th, 1855, took the train to Liver pool, and arrived there on February 10th. They sailed on the "Siddons," on February 27. Their party included Timbrell (34), Elizabeth (27), Annie (11), John (8), Martha (5), Emilly Amelia (21 months), and a hired girl, Elizabeth being in "delicate health." (She was six months pregnant.) The Siddons was an 895 ton old sailing vessel under the command of Captain J. Taylor. It carried 430 Mormon emigrants under the presidency of Elder John Fullmer. After a voyage of 52 days, they landed in Philadelphia on April 20, 1855, and from there traveled by rail to Pittsburgh. There they traveled by river steamboat to St. Louis, going down the Ohio to the Mississippi then north on the Mississippi.
Arriving in St. Louis on May 7th, the group left on May 9 on the steamer "Polar Star" journeying west across Missouri to Atchinson, Kansas. From there they went at once to Mormon Grove, the campground appointed by the Church for wagon parties to assemble before crossing the plains.
It took almost two months for the arrangements to be completed. The party consisting of 402 people, including babies and all, 45 wagons, 220 oxen, and 24 cows...Twenty0five horsemen acted as scouts, all under the direction of Captain Ballantyne.
Shortly after they got underway, the scouts came back to say that a large company of Indians was coming toward them and was demanding beef and flour as the price for allowing the Saints to travel through their land. Captain Ballantyne met them about a mile from camp, smoked with them and told them that the party was "very poor and meant no harm. The cattle were so poor they could hardly pull the wagons." Nevertheless, the Indians insisted tat they be given one beef and several sacks of flour in return for their promise not to molest the party again. The promise was kept.
Still, trouble was to follow the company because in early July, "the whole camp was struck with the mountain fever." Elizabeth became ill and "the baby nursed it from her." On July 13, James Cyrus Worlton died at the age of two and a half months. Elizabeth wrote: I never will forget the day we laid our dear little boy away by the roadside and traveled on the next morning." She was to bear no more children. His death was a sad blow to the older children who loved him tenderly. Flora, who was only four, later recalled:"...the wagon train stopped while a shallow grave was arranged in which to bury our tiny baby brother." Sacks were laid over the baby, who was wrapped only in his blanket, before the grave was closed.
The road to Zion continued to be a rocky one. Timbrell wrote:
"One night when camped on the Green River on our way across the plains Indians came upon us to our camp and acted in an aggressive manner, causing us to fear they might give us trouble by stampeding our cattle. We had driven our cattle across a fork of the river that they might be better fed, but on account of the actions of the Indians orders came from the captain to gather in the cattle. I, with others waded the stream to get the cattle and bring them across the river again, and I stood guard in my wet clothes. I had chill after chill from this, and I think it was on this occasion that I contracted a disease of the kidney..."
They traveled on, finally reaching Salt Lake City on September 25, 1855, over seven and a half months after leaving Bath. They were welcomed by a brass band which led them into the city, taking them to Union Square (now known as Pioneer Park), a campground. It was Sunday, and in the afternoon, they went to meeting, hearing president Brigham young and Heber C. Kimball preach. The speakers directed their talk to the newcomers, blessing and encouraging them. "This was a joyous moment for our family and the others, who had traveled so long and sacrificed so much, " Timbrell recalled.
The family stayed in SLC for almost a year, living in a dugout without a floor. Since most of their money had gone to finance the trip, thy were exceedingly poor, soon finding themselves (in Lilly's words): '...without money or flour. My husband took some silver spoons that he brought from England. The spoons had been handed down for a number of generations; he took the spoons from door to door in exchange for flour, but flour seemed so scarce that no one had any to spare. At last he came to the home of Heber C. Kimball. That good man would not let him go away without flour, but exchanged the flour for the spoons. When he returned with the flour, the family was so happy they joined hands and danced around the sack. In later years, their son John Worlton, was to recall that the children were so hungry they ate the raw flour out of the bag.....
In the fall of 1856, at Brigham's suggestion, the family moved to East Weber (Morgan City), also living a year there in a dugout without a floor.......Later Lily wrote: "We took part in the general move with the Saints south at the time of Johnston's army coming to Utah. (My husband) having learned the trade of shoemaking in England, we did well in making and repairing shoes for the soldiers. We had cows and sold milk to the soldiers. I also nursed the Dr.'s wife. She had a small baby. She had a bad fever and I was paid well for my work When the army went back, the Dr.'s wife dreaded the journey so much that she tried to get me to go with her."
The family was able to set aside some money in the form of gold coins.....During the winter, after the soldiers departure, the children were ill and developing cabin fever. It entertained them to play with the family savings, the little bag of gold coins. One day, however, the bag of coins could not be found..... One morning, while giving the pig pen a cleaning, his fork stuck into something that sounded very much like metal.....It was the gold coins -$500 in gold. Evidently, one of the children had dropped the bag into the pan of pigslop.
The family moved to Lehi in the spring of 1862, to a home that Timbrell purchased.....Here Annie met and married John Oborn. JTWI then took a second wife, Maria Dallimore who was then 16 years old. She had also come from Bath, England. She gave birth to William Albion Worlton. She later fell in love with someone else and left the marriage. In 1866, they moved back to Morgan where they lived for the next 20 years. During the first year, they lived in a little cabin. While in Morgan, Timbrell farmed, worked in the Cooperative Tanning and Manufacturing Company, and also made shoes for men working on the railroad that was being built in Utah at the time.
JTWI is described as having a slight speech impediment, being very prompt, and being exceedingly zealous with regard to his religion.
On December 27, 1882, he wrote out his will. On the 6th of February, 1885, he was given a blessing by the Church elders and at 12:25 that afternoon, he died at 63 years.
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1821 - 1885 (63 år)
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