Vinson Knight

(1804–42)

Vinson Knight was born in Norwich, Massachusetts, in 1804. He married Martha McBride in 1826. In the spring of 1834, Knight was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The following year, he moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where he was ordained an elder and a high priest. In Kirtland he served as a counselor to Bishop Newel K. Whitney and was a stockholder in the Kirtland Safety Society. In 1837 Knight moved to Far West, Missouri. The following year, he was appointed acting bishop at Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri. After being expelled from Missouri with other Latter-day Saints, Knight helped purchase eighteen thousand acres of land for the Church in Iowa Territory. He then settled in Commerce, Illinois, which was later renamed Nauvoo, where he was appointed the bishop of the Lower Ward and served in many civic positions. In January 1841, a revelation instructed Knight to buy stock for the building of the Nauvoo House and “to preside over the bishopric” (Doctrine and Covenants 124:74, 141). The following year he died in Nauvoo.

References in the Doctrine and Covenants

Doctrine and Covenants 124

Additional Information

Biographical facts and sources, The Joseph Smith Papers