[1]Extracts from the minutes of this meeting were published with significant modifications in the September 19, 1855, issue of the Deseret News. (See Document 2.2.)

[2]The April 28, 1842, entry in Joseph Smith’s 1841–1842 journal, written by his scribe Willard Richards, reads: “at Two o’clock after-noon met the members of the ‘Female relief Society’ and after presiding at the admission of many new members. Gave a lecture on the pries[t]hood shewing how the Sisters would come in possession of the priviliges & blesings & gifts of the priesthood— & that the signs should follow them. such as healing the sick casting out devils &c. & that they might attain unto. these blessings. by a virtuous life & conversation & diligence in keeping all the commandments.” (Joseph Smith, Journal, Apr. 28, 1842, in JSP, J2:52.)

[3]text: Possibly “Lucy”.

[4]1 Corinthians 12:3. Joseph Smith had not altered this verse as part of his earlier revision of the King James Bible. (See Scott H. Faulring et al., eds., Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts [Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004], 507.)

[5]Joseph Smith’s 1832 revelation on priesthood included similar instructions: “Therefore, let every man stand in his own office, and labor in his own calling.” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:109.)

[6]At the April 19, 1842, meeting of the society, “Mrs. Leonard was administered to for the restoration of health,” and Mrs. Durfee “bore testimony to the great blessing” of healing she had received when Emma Smith and her counselors administered to her at a previous meeting. (Document 1.2, entry for Apr. 19, 1842.)

[7]See Doctrine and Covenants 124:28, 39. At a Relief Society meeting on August 13, 1843, Nauvoo temple building committee member Reynolds Cahoon said: “there are many Benevolent Societies abroad designd to do good but not as this ours is according to the order of God connected with the priesthood according to the same good principals & knowledge will grow out of it … you kneed not doubt but this Society is raisd by the Lord to prepare us for the great blessings which are for us in the House of the Lord in the Temple.” (Document 1.2, entry for Aug. 13, 1843.)

[8]Mark 16:17, 18. Joseph Smith’s 1832 revelation on priesthood emphasized that “every soul who believeth on your words, and is baptized by water for the remission of sins, shall receive the Holy Ghost,” with signs and “many wonderful works” following “them that believe.” Latter-day Saint women had begun performing healing blessings in the 1830s. (Doctrine and Covenants 84:64–66; Jonathan A. Stapley and Kristine Wright, “Female Ritual Healing in Mormonism,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 1 [Winter 2011]: 1–11.)

[9]Counselor Elizabeth Ann Whitney remembered that she was “ordained and set apart under the hand of Joseph Smith the Prophet to administer to the sick and comfort the sorrowful.” Diantha Morley Billings, who joined the Relief Society on March 24, 1842, “was blessed and set apart to administer to the sick.” (Elizabeth Ann Whitney, “A Leaf from an Autobiography,” Woman’s Exponent, Nov. 15, 1878, 7:91; “In Memoriam,” Woman’s Exponent, June 1, 1879, 8:251.)

[10]Joseph Smith appears to be criticizing Parley P. Pratt (1807–1857), Orson Pratt (1811–1881), Orson Hyde (1805–1878), and John E. Page (1799–1867), all members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, for two issues: for earlier public conflicts between each man and Smith; and for publicly teaching things Smith had shared privately. In 1837, financial disputes—precipitated by the national panic of 1837 and the local failure of the Kirtland Safety Society, a banking institution of which Joseph Smith was president—led to the temporary disaffection of the Pratt brothers. Orson Hyde publicly criticized Smith’s leadership the following year during conflict between Mormons and Missourians and was disfellowshipped from the church and removed from the apostolic quorum; he was restored to fellowship within the church and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1839. Page failed to fill a mission with other members of the Twelve to England in 1839, as well as a mission to accompany Orson Hyde to Jerusalem in 1841. Smith chided Page at the April 1842 church conference. It is more difficult to pinpoint instances when, without Smith’s authorization, these apostles publicly preached information that Smith had taught them in private. By this time, Parley Pratt was a prolific writer who had published some theological ideas, such as the doctrine of theosis (humanity’s potential for divinization), that Smith did not teach publicly until later. (Terryl L. Givens and Matthew J. Grow, Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism [New York: Oxford University Press, 2011], 96–102, 125–126; Wilford Woodruff, Journals, 1833–1898, Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898, CHL, May 29 and June 27, 1839; JSP, J1:343n38; “Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, Apr. 15, 1842, 3:762; John Quist, “John E. Page: An Apostle of Uncertainty,” Journal of Mormon History 12 [1985]: 53–56.)

[11]On many occasions between 1838 and 1844, Joseph Smith expressed premonitions of his death. While imprisoned in Liberty, Missouri, in 1838 and 1839, Smith told Lyman Wight that “he should not live to see forty years, but told him [Wight] not to reveal it untill he was dead.” In addition, at a young boy’s funeral on April 9, 1842, Joseph Smith stated, “Some has supposed that Br Joseph could not die but this is a mistake it is true their has been times when I have had the promise of my life to accomplish such & such things, but having accomplish those things I have not at present any lease of my life & am as liable to die as other men.” (Woodruff, Journal, Apr. 9, 1842, and July 28, 1844.)

[12]The term “keys” had multiple meanings for Latter-day Saints in the 1840s. On May 1, 1842, three days after this address to the Relief Society, Joseph Smith preached in a public gathering in Nauvoo “on the keys of the kingdom” and stated, “The keys are certain signs & words by which false spirits & personages may be detected from true.— which cannot be revealed to the Elders till the Temple is completed.”^a On other occasions, Smith employed the terms “keys” and “keys of the kingdom” with reference to both knowledge and authority. Scriptural passages refer to “the key of knowledge” or “the key of the knowledge of God,” which Latter-day Saints associate with the ordinances of the Melchizedek Priesthood, including temple ordinances.^b For Latter-day Saints, as for Catholics, keys also denote the authority of ecclesiastical office.^c Both ancient and modern scriptures assign the governing and sealing “keys of the kingdom” to the apostles or “the Presidency of the High Priesthood.”^d (a. Joseph Smith, Journal, May 1, 1842, in JSP, J2:53. b. See Luke 11:52; and Doctrine and Covenants 84:19–23. c. “Keys,” in The Oxford English Dictionary, ed. J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner, 2nd ed., 20 vols. [Oxford: Clarendon, 1989], 8:405. d. See Matthew 16:19; and Doctrine and Covenants 27:12–13; 81:2; see also “Keys,” in JSP, J1:468; Doctrine and Covenants 107:18–19; 124:95, 97; and Jared Lindquist, “‘Unlocking the Door of the Gospel’: The Concept of ‘Keys’ in Mormonism and Early American Culture,” Archive of Restoration Culture: Summer Fellows’ Papers, 1997–1999 [Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History, 2000], 29–41.)

[13]Joseph Smith’s 1832 revelation on priesthood states that the “power of godliness” cannot be manifest to mankind without priesthood authority and ordinances. It also explains that Moses taught this and “sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God.” The Book of Mormon refers to the righteous coming into or dwelling in the presence of God. (Doctrine and Covenants 84:19–23; see also 2 Nephi 2:8; and Mormon 7:7; 9:13.)

[14]text: “things” written over a knife-erased illegible word.

[15]Joshua 7 recounts Achan’s disobedience and deception.

[16]Joseph Smith used similar wording on February 6, 1836, when, with reference to missionary work, he declared to the Kirtland elders quorum: “this night the key is turned to the nations.” Parallel language appears in a published letter from Hyrum Smith inviting the Saints to come to Nauvoo to build the temple “in this place, wherein their dead may be redeemed, and the key of knowledge that unfolds the dispensation of the fullness of times may be turned, and the mysteries of God be unfolded.” (Kirtland Elders Quorum, “A Record of the First Quorumum of Elders Belonging to the Church of Christ: In Kirtland Geauga Co. Ohio,” 1836–1838, 1840–1841, Community of Christ Library-Archives, Independence, MO, Feb. 6, 1836; Letter from Hyrum Smith, Times and Seasons, Nov. 1, 1841, 3:589; see also Woodruff, Journal, June 27, 1839.)

[17]At the April 19, 1842, meeting of the society, Sarah M. Cleveland spoke “in the gift of tongues” and Mrs. Sessions “gave the interpretation.” (Document 1.2, entry for Apr. 19, 1842.)

[18]text: Possibly “Mores”.

[19]The moral conduct of the daughters of “the widow Nighman” prompted the question regarding the “order of her house.” (See Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845, CHL, May 24 and 25, 1842; and “Chauncey L. Higbee,” Nauvoo Neighbor, May 29, 1844, [3]; see also 67n175 herein.)

[20]text: Six pinholes in paper, as if something was attached at one point.