Report of the Warwickshire Conference, Held in the Latter-day Saints' Hall, Guy Street, Leamington Spa, Sunday, September 1, 1850

Leamington: J.W. Brierly, Printer, 1850. Pamphlet. Near Fine. 10pp. Octavo [22.5 cm] pamphlet; unsewn. Minor discoloring near fore edge; else Near Fine. We can locate two institutional copies. Scarce. According to Crawley "At the afternoon session of the meetings summarized in this pamphlet - the only located report from the Warwickshire Conference - Eli B. Kelsey was sustained as the conference president, succeeding Alfred Cordon, who had served since October 1848. The report has a table of statistics for twenty-one branches on the first page, followed by the minutes of three sessions on Sunday, September 1, 1850, which include John Toone's tribute to Cordon and reports of Cordon's and Kelsey's discourses. At the evening session, Kelsey proposed establishing book clubs so the members could purchase Church books in installments, a proposal he would repeat in London four months later. A postscript at the bottom of p. 10 states that the report will be sold for 2d. each, "which is only sufficient to cover the expense of printing," and "every Elder, Priest, Teacher, and Deacon" is expected to buy a copy, with the members taking the remainder. Cordon notes in his journal that he and Kelsey spent Thursday, September 5, in preparing the minutes for the press.

John Freeman, who assisted Toone at these meetings, had served as the conference clerk during the preceding three years. Born in London, January 28, 1807, he joined the Church in 1844 and immediately began to labor as a local missionary, eventually presiding over the branches at Alcester and Stratford-on-Avon. Of his history subsequent to 1857 nothing is known, although it would appear he remained in England." Crawley 511. Flake/Draper 1956.