Born in Douglas, Isle of Man; baptized in Liverpool, England, by John Taylor in 1841; immigrated to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1844; while returning from a mission to England in 1847, married Elizabeth Whitaker; crossed plains to Salt Lake Valley in company that included GQC, 1847; left on mission to California in 1849, traveling in company with GQC; returned to Utah in 1850 and began working with the Deseret News; served as first official postmaster of Salt Lake City; published Mormon Way-Bill in 1851 with Arieh Brower, providing information about northern and southern routes between Salt Lake City and California; member of presidency of Thirtieth Quorum of Seventy along with GQC; died in Salt Lake City. (See Jenson, BE, 2:750–51; Landon, To California in ’49, 182; Whitaker and Sorensen, Whitaker Family in England and America, 153–68; Biographical Record of Salt Lake City, 251–52; Davies, Mormon Gold, 103; “Died,” Deseret News, Apr. 22, 1857; Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 2:205–8; GQC journal, frequent references, Sept. 1850–Aug. 1854.)