On Sunday morning, the day after their arrival in Preston, the elders went to Vauxhall Chapel to hear the Rev. James Fielding preach. At the close of his discourse he gave out that in the afternoon and evening meetings ministers from America would preach in his chapel.
The news spread rapidly in the town, and in a few hours quite a sensation was abroad among the inhabitants, who flocked to the chapel at the appointed times, some out of curiosity, others from a genuine interest. Both in the afternoon and evening the chapel was crowded, and the apostles preached their opening sermons, Heber C. Kimball being the first of them who bore his testimony to "Mormonism" in foreign lands.
On the following Wednesday Vauxhall Chapel was again crowded, when Elder Orson Hyde preached, and Willard Richards bore testimony; and the Holy Ghost, we are told, powerfully accompanied the word on the occasion.
Only a few days had passed since the elders arrived on the shores of Great Britain, yet "a number believed and began to praise God and rejoice exceedingly."
The Rev. Mr. Fielding, however, saw now the consequence of all this. He was in danger of losing his entire flock. Many were resolving to be baptized into the Church of Latter-day Saints. A continuation of this result for a few weeks signified the entire dissolution of his own church. He was in consternation at the prospect. Trembling, it is said, as if suddenly stricken with the palsy, he presented himself before the elders on the morning appointed for the baptism of a number of his former disciples, and forbade the baptism. Of course this was in vain. He had met the inevitable.
On Sunday, July 30th, just one month from the time the elders embarked at New York, the eventful scene occurred in Preston, of the baptism in the River Ribble of the nine first converts to Mormonism in foreign lands. They were
George D. Watt, Ann Elizabeth Walmesley,
Thomas Walmesley, George Wate,
Miles Hodgen, Mary Ann Brown,
Henry Billsburg, —— Miller,