William Clayton (1814-1879) was born in Charnock Moss, England to Thomas Clayton and Ann Critchley. In 1836 he married Ruth Moon and in 1837 he was baptized into the LDS Church in the River Ribble in Preston, England. In 1840 he immigrated to America and settled in Nauvoo where he became a scribe to Joseph Smith. Clayton entered into plural marriage and was the husband of ten wives and thirty-three children. In 1847 he traveled to the Salt Lake Valley. He lived there for the remainder of his life.

This text assembles ... the great majority of Joseph's first-person journal entries which are scattered throughout the seven-volume ... History of the Church ... edited by Church historian B.H. Roberts.