Charles Law Photograph or Not?

For decades a blurry, poor quality photograph has been circulated in the Law family purporting to be a representation of Charles Law (1832-1862). For decades I accepted it as actually being Charles Law. Then about 10 years ago doubts concerning this identification began to fester when a colleague pointed out that the hairline, broadened nose, and general appearance was not that of a man who died at age 29, but rather that of someone upwards of 50 years of age. Here is the photo with which many of Charles' descendants are familiar:

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I now believe that this photograph is of Simon Price (1808-1890), Isaac Brough Law's father-in-law.

The photograph below depicts Susan Juchau (Price) Law and her daughter, Cora (Law) Wilhelmsen. Also in the photograph are portraits of Isaac Brough Law (Susan's husband), Mary Lousia Stanners Price (Susan's grandmother), and Simon Price (Susan's grandfather).

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Cropping the Simon Price portrait from the larger photograph above and enlarging and straightening it resulted in the following photo:

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Finally, I took this photo and cropped it down to the head, straightened it and removed the slight tint resulting in the following portrait:


Placing this photo side-by-side with the photo of Charles Law it becomes apparent that it is the same photograph:

















My conclusion is that we have no photograph of Charles Law (1832-1862). If we could locate the portrait depicted in the photograph of Susan (Price) Law and Cora (Law) Wilhelmsen we could undoubtedly obtain a much better copy of this photo of Simon Price.

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Charles Law - Arrival in Boston, Massachusetts

Charles Law came to the United States on the ship George Washington, a clipper ship built in Boston in 1851. As part of the Williams & Guion Line, Train's Line, and Warren & Thayer's line, this ship made many trips between Liverpool and Boston. In 1857 the ship carried 817 Mormons immigrants from Liverpool to Boston in just 23 days.

The ship set sail on on March 28 from Liverpool when Josiah Cummings was captain. The Mormon immigrants were under the leadership of James P. Park and his counselors Jesse B. Martin and Charles R. Dana. Amos Musser served as secretary for the ship, recording events of the journey. The ship arrived in Boston Harbor on April 20, 1857, but it wasn't until April 23rd that the passengers were allowed to disembark.

The passenger list of those arriving in Boston show Charles Law, age 25, a merchant, as the 9th person listed on this page from the record.

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Source: United States. Department of the Treasury. Bureau of Customs.
"Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving in Boston, 1820-1891; with index, 1848-1891";
FHL 419943.

Christening Record of Charles Law (1832-1862)

Charles Law was born December 19, 1832 in South Hiendley, a small town in the West Riding of Yorkshire. There is no record of his birth--this was still several years prior to the beginning of civil registration and the Church records only provide his christening information. Charles was christened January 27, 1833. Here is a copy of the record:

Click on image to enlarge
Image from FHL 919298, item 3

This image comes from the Bishops' transcripts of the Felkirk parish records. The originals are in the Borthwick Institute in York. We learn from this record that Charles, was the son of Isaac and Mary Law. He was christened on January 27, 1832. The parents lived in South Hiendley. Isaac was a cordwainer (a shoemaker). I can't quite make out the beginning of the curate's name, but the "bachcroft" is the ending portion of the name.

Charles Law in the Deseret News, October 26, 1859

Charles Law appears in the following newspaper article which appeared in the Deseret News on October 26, 1859 (page 8). The article indicates that he spent some portion of 1858 in the Salt Lake City 13th ward and owed $2.00 in taxes.

click image to enlarge
image from Utah Digital Newspaper Project

This image comes from the Utah Digital Newspapers project at http://www.lib.utah.edu/digital/unews/ a terrific resource for family and local historians created by the Marriott Library at the University of Utah (see the entire page on their website by clicking here).

Charles had arrived in Salt Lake on September 26, 1857. The Bocock sisters had preceded him arriving on September 12, 1857. According to information passed down through the family Charles married Hannah Bocock on September 29 or 30, Elizabeth on October 1 or 2, and Emma somewhere between October 22nd and 29th. According to the Endowment House Sealing records Charles and Hannah were sealed on January 17, 1858 in President Young's office. Charles and Elizabeth were sealed on January 31, 1858 also in President Young's office. Charles and Emma were not sealed until March 12, 1859 in the home of B. L. Aaron Johnson. Following the completion of the Endowment House they were all re-sealed on August 31, 1861. These sealings can be viewed on Family History Library film 183395, Endowment House Sealings, Book C, pp. 264-265, 266-267, 334-335, and 550.

If the family was in the Salt Lake City 13th ward in 1858, then it was only until April, for in April they headed south with most of the other saints as Johnston's Army approached Salt Lake. Many went to Provo and Springville at this time. Most returned in July, but Charles' family hadn't ever really established themselves in Salt Lake, so they simply stayed on in Springville.

I did check through the Salt Lake 13th ward records for any evidence of the marriages that took place and for any move-in/move-out type records mentioning Charles or his wives, but to no avail. The record-keeping at the ward level wasn't very well done during this period of Church history.

Another Document for Charles Law (1832-1862)

It looks as if Charles Law appeared in the Deseret News, 26 Oct 1859, page 8. The "article" was entitled "Save the Cost!" and reports Charles Law among many others who are delinquent on their territorial and county taxes. The list indicates that he was in the Salt Lake 13th Ward in 1858 and was delinquent to the amount of $2.00.

If this is our Charles Law, this would indicate that upon arrival in Salt Lake City, Charles lived in the 13th Ward until the removal to Springville. Charles arrived in Salt Lake on September 26, 1857, subsequently married Hannah Bocock (and a little later, Elizabeth Bocock), and did not relocate to Springville until April 1857.

Link to the file in the Utah Digital Newspapers

Link to copy of the file posted to "The Law Family in Cyberspace"