![ARCHITECTURE - ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL Manuscript planning brief for work under the supervision of Inigo Jones, [c.1631]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-10%252F16%252F25762965-1-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
![ADVERTISING POSTERfor 'The Suffragette' newspaper, [c.1913-1914]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-06%252F25%252F25680656-116-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
![ILLUMINATED ADDRESS – CLARA CODD Illuminated printed address signed by Emmeline Pankhurst, [1909]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-06%252F25%252F25680656-32-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
![MUSIC & RECORDINGS – ETHEL SMYTH Collection of printed music, song sheets and records, [c.1911-1912]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-10%252F09%252F25680656-99-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
Darren Sutherland
Specialist
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
![A KIRTLAND LAND DEED SIGNED BY MORMON LEADER JOSEPH SMITH, JR. SMITH, JOSEPH, JR. 1805-1844. Manuscript Document Signed ("Joseph Smith Jr [device]"), being a deed selling a parcel of land in Kirtland Township and County to William Marks, 2 pp recto and verso with integral blank, legal folio, Geauga County, OH, April 10, 1837, image 1](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg2.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2022-10%2F31%2F25274713-2-2.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
![A KIRTLAND LAND DEED SIGNED BY MORMON LEADER JOSEPH SMITH, JR. SMITH, JOSEPH, JR. 1805-1844. Manuscript Document Signed ("Joseph Smith Jr [device]"), being a deed selling a parcel of land in Kirtland Township and County to William Marks, 2 pp recto and verso with integral blank, legal folio, Geauga County, OH, April 10, 1837, image 2](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg2.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2022-10%2F31%2F25274713-2-1.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
Americana
Lot 118
A KIRTLAND LAND DEED SIGNED BY MORMON LEADER JOSEPH SMITH, JR. SMITH, JOSEPH, JR. 1805-1844. Manuscript Document Signed ("Joseph Smith Jr [device]"), being a deed selling a parcel of land in Kirtland Township and County to William Marks, 2 pp recto and verso with integral blank, legal folio, Geauga County, OH, April 10, 1837,
24 April – 4 May 2023, 12:00 EDT
Online, New YorkSold for US$28,050 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
A KIRTLAND LAND DEED SIGNED BY MORMON LEADER JOSEPH SMITH, JR.
SMITH, JOSEPH, JR. 1805-1844. Manuscript Document Signed ("Joseph Smith Jr [device]"), being a deed selling a parcel of land in Kirtland Township and County to William Marks, 2 pp recto and verso with integral blank, legal folio, Geauga County, OH, April 10, 1837, also signed by James Emett and F.G. Williams (as Justice of the Peace), leaves creased and moderately toned with spotting and soiling, docket on verso of 2nd leaf.
JOSEPH SMITH MOVES CHURCH ASSETS AROUND.
Not long after he published The Book of Mormon (1830), Prophet Joseph Smith Jr. gathered followers in Kirtland, Ohio in February of 1831 with the plan of building an American Zion in the west. Over the next few years, Smith sent out missionaries, published texts, and broke ground for a temple in Kirtland. The town grew at such an exponential pace that Smith and his followers founded the Kirtland Safety Society bank in 1836 to serve the needs of their community and the church, which was land-rich but cash-poor. The KSS was twice denied a charter by the state of Ohio, however, so in early 1837 it reorganized itself as the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company, a "quasi-bank" that issued notes, hoping that its enormous capitalization would encourage the state to grant a charter.
Soon after, Smith found himself facing a slate of lawsuits and legal challenges over operating an illegal bank. From April 7-10, perhaps to protect church land from seizure, Smith signed six land deeds for a total of 146 acres to William Marks, one of which was the deed to the land for the Kirtland Temple (not the present example, however).
The KSSABC's problems were exacerbated by the Panic of 1837 which began in May of that year. Smith was inundated by creditors and arrested seven times in four months. The community was in chaos, with many members fleeing to Missouri and others breaking away to form a new church. Unhappy with Smith's leadership, the members exiled him. In January of 1838 he left for Missouri under cover of night, never to return.
The present document regards the sale of a plot of land in Kirtland sold just a year earlier to Smith, his two brothers William and Don Carlos, and William Miller by Peter and Sarah French. For $500, the Smith brothers and Miller sell the parcel to William Marks, himself a leader in the LDS Church in Kirtland, who was considered to be first in line for leadership after the death of Smith. Marks is best remembered as one of the early leaders who was critical of plural marriage, claiming that Joseph Smith Jr. himself had wearied of the practice before his death.
In part: "Know all men by these presents that I Joseph Smith Jr of the County of Geauga in the state of Ohio for and in consideration of the sum of five hundred dollars to me now in hand paid by William Marks of the county aforesaid the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged have granted bargained sold remised and quit claimed and by these presents do grant bargain sell remise and quite claim with the said William Marks and to his heirs and assigns forever all my right and title to that place or parcel of land situated in Kirtland Township & county and state aforesaid deeded to William Miller William Smith Don Castro Smith and Joseph Smith Jr all of Kirtland Township ... by Peter French & Sarah French his wife which deed bears date the fifth day of October AD one thousand eight hundred and thirty six...."
Peter French was one of the first settlers in the Western Reserve, arriving in 1798 to build and run a grist mill. He purchased several parcels of land in the Kirtland area, building a log cabin and later a large brick house that would serve as the township's first inn, located diagonally across from N.K. Whitney's store in the Kirtland flats, and serving as a local gathering place for the LDS community. In the 1830s French sold the inn and the other land he owned, including the plot for the Temple, to the Church.
JOSEPH SMITH MOVES CHURCH ASSETS AROUND.
Not long after he published The Book of Mormon (1830), Prophet Joseph Smith Jr. gathered followers in Kirtland, Ohio in February of 1831 with the plan of building an American Zion in the west. Over the next few years, Smith sent out missionaries, published texts, and broke ground for a temple in Kirtland. The town grew at such an exponential pace that Smith and his followers founded the Kirtland Safety Society bank in 1836 to serve the needs of their community and the church, which was land-rich but cash-poor. The KSS was twice denied a charter by the state of Ohio, however, so in early 1837 it reorganized itself as the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company, a "quasi-bank" that issued notes, hoping that its enormous capitalization would encourage the state to grant a charter.
Soon after, Smith found himself facing a slate of lawsuits and legal challenges over operating an illegal bank. From April 7-10, perhaps to protect church land from seizure, Smith signed six land deeds for a total of 146 acres to William Marks, one of which was the deed to the land for the Kirtland Temple (not the present example, however).
The KSSABC's problems were exacerbated by the Panic of 1837 which began in May of that year. Smith was inundated by creditors and arrested seven times in four months. The community was in chaos, with many members fleeing to Missouri and others breaking away to form a new church. Unhappy with Smith's leadership, the members exiled him. In January of 1838 he left for Missouri under cover of night, never to return.
The present document regards the sale of a plot of land in Kirtland sold just a year earlier to Smith, his two brothers William and Don Carlos, and William Miller by Peter and Sarah French. For $500, the Smith brothers and Miller sell the parcel to William Marks, himself a leader in the LDS Church in Kirtland, who was considered to be first in line for leadership after the death of Smith. Marks is best remembered as one of the early leaders who was critical of plural marriage, claiming that Joseph Smith Jr. himself had wearied of the practice before his death.
In part: "Know all men by these presents that I Joseph Smith Jr of the County of Geauga in the state of Ohio for and in consideration of the sum of five hundred dollars to me now in hand paid by William Marks of the county aforesaid the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged have granted bargained sold remised and quit claimed and by these presents do grant bargain sell remise and quite claim with the said William Marks and to his heirs and assigns forever all my right and title to that place or parcel of land situated in Kirtland Township & county and state aforesaid deeded to William Miller William Smith Don Castro Smith and Joseph Smith Jr all of Kirtland Township ... by Peter French & Sarah French his wife which deed bears date the fifth day of October AD one thousand eight hundred and thirty six...."
Peter French was one of the first settlers in the Western Reserve, arriving in 1798 to build and run a grist mill. He purchased several parcels of land in the Kirtland area, building a log cabin and later a large brick house that would serve as the township's first inn, located diagonally across from N.K. Whitney's store in the Kirtland flats, and serving as a local gathering place for the LDS community. In the 1830s French sold the inn and the other land he owned, including the plot for the Temple, to the Church.
Footnotes
This lot relates to the family of Mormon leader Newel K. Whitney (1795-1850), an early convert to the LDS Church who took up a leadership role at Kirtland alongside Joseph Smith which continued through Nauvoo until his death in Utah in 1850. N.K. Whitney was the eldest of 10 children of Samuel F. Whitney III and his wife Susannah. After N.K.'s conversion, his parents and several of his siblings also joined the LDS Church, although not his brother Samuel F. Whitney IV, who figures largely in the correspondence presented here, and through whose line of descent these documents likely hail.