Joseph Knight Sr. and his family were instrumental in Joseph Smith Jr.’s work to translate the Book of Mormon. I learned this week that he is my half third cousin eight times removed—the half third cousin of my paternal grandmother’s fourth-great-grandmother, Jemima Griggs. Joseph Knight and Jemima Griggs’ son both joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1830s.

This week’s Come Follow Me Lesson was February 17–23: “Upon You My Fellow Servants” – Doctrine and Covenants 12–17; Joseph Smith—History 1:66–75. Section 12 of the Doctrine and Covenants was given to Joseph Knight Sr., when he was wondering what his duty was in the Lord’s work.

To learn more about my relationships to individuals involved in the early history of our church, I found a group in the Relative Finder application (https://relativefinder.org/) called “LDS – Joseph Smith Papers” that shows if you are related to anyone mentioned in the Joseph Smith Papers. You can search for particular people, like the Knight family.

I use my son’s FamilySearch account so I can see relationships on my husband’s side of the family as well. The first relationship I saw in Relative Finder between myself and Joseph Knight Sr. was through Jemima Griggs’ father, Nathaniel Griggs, and common ancestors William Patten and Mary Digbie.

Then, I saw in FamilySearch that we share another common ancestor, John Knight. I decided to use another neat feature of Relative Finder – and that’s the ability to find all the ways you are related to someone. This is the “Connect” tab. You can see your relationship with a person in the FamilySearch tree by using their ID number. You can also find all the relationships between two individuals using both of their ID numbers. Using my son’s account, I added the ID of Joseph Knight Sr., and saw that there are 23 common ancestors between them.

This was eye-opening. I knew that those who were from early colonial times were interrelated, but I hadn’t ever explored it. Most of these common ancestors were from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1600s.

The closest relationship between myself and Joseph Knight Sr. was through John Knight Jr., born 1630 in England and died in 1714 in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

 

Knight Ancestry

Joseph Knight Sr. and my grandmother’s fourth-great-grandmother, Jemima Griggs, were both descended from John Knight. Because they descend through different wives of John Knight, they are half third cousins. Full third cousins have both 2nd-great-grandparents in common.

John Knight, “an aged man,” died 1 December 1714 in Charlestown, Massachusetts.[1] He born about 1630 in England, the son of John Knight Sr. and Mary, who migrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s. John Knight Sr. was considered one of 109 founders of Watertown, established in 1630, and was received into the town church in 1636.[2]

John Knight was likely born in England and then came to the colony with his parents when he was a very young child. He was a cooper, church member, and was married five times. His first wife was Ruhamah Johnson, who he married on 25 April 1654.[3] One of their five children, Elizabeth Knight, survived to adulthood, and was the great-grandmother of my ancestor, Jemima Griggs. John Knight then married Abigail Stowers, who passed away, then Mary Bridge, on 22 June 1668. Mary was the mother of Samuel Knight, the great-grandfather of Joseph Knight Sr.[4]

After Mary’s death, John Knight married Mary Clements, who died after 4 years, then he married Sarah Rowlins Holsworth. When John Knight Jr. died in 1714, he was 84 years old.[5]

Joseph Knight Sr.

Samuel Knight’s great-grandson was Joseph Knight Sr. He was born 26 November 1772 to Benjamin and Hannah Knight in Oakham, Massachusetts.[6] He lived in Windham County Vermont, when he married Polly Peck in 1795.[7] They moved to Chenango County, New York, then Colesville, New York in 1811.[8]

He was a landowner and in 1826, he hired Joseph Smith Jr. as a laborer. Joseph Knight Sr. owned four farms in Colesville, a grain mill, and two carding machines which prepared wool and cotton for spinning.[9] Joseph Knight’s son said “My father said Joseph [Smith] was the best hand he ever hired,” and Joseph told him and his father “that he had seen a vision, that a personage had appeared to him and told him where there was a gold book of ancient date buried, and if he would follow the directions of the Angel he could get it. … My Father and I believed what he told us, I think we were the first after his father’s family.”

Joseph Knight Sr. and his family were loyal friends who helped Joseph Smith Jr. while he was translating the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith Jr. wrote: “[He] very kindly and considerately brought us, a quantity of provisions, in order that we might not be interrupted in the work of translation.” Knight gave the Smiths ““a Barral of Mackrel and some Lined paper for writing … some nine or ten Bushels of grain and some five or six Bushels taters [potatoes] and a pound of tea.”[10]

Joseph Knight Sr. asked Joseph Smith Jr. what the Lord wanted him to do. The revelation that came in May 1829 as a result is now Doctrine and Covenants section 12. This section is similar to others given to Hyrum Smith and Oliver Cowdery, where the men are encouraged to assist in a great and marvelous work that is about to come forth. The section includes harvest imagery that would have been familiar to a farmer. Knight was encouraged to “keep my commandments, and see to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion.”[11]

Joseph Knight Sr. was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 28 June 1830 by Oliver Cowdery.[12] He moved to Jackson County Missouri in 1831, then Nauvoo, Illinois in 1840, where he was ordained a high priest. He died on 2 February 1847 at Mount Pisgah,[13]. Clark County, Iowa.

Jemima Griggs

Joseph Knight’s third cousin, Jemima Griggs, was born in 1753 and christened on 11 February 1753 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, the daughter of Nathaniel and Mary Griggs.[14] On 12 September 1775, she married John White in Roxbury.[15] Her first child was named John Griggs White—he was born 25 October 1776 in Roxbury.[16] Jemima went on to have ten children in all. She may have died soon after her youngest son was born, in about 1803; and supposedly her husband John White died in 1802.[17] More research is needed to understand Jemima’s life and family.

Jemima’s son, John Griggs White, joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints after moving to the Kirtland, Ohio, area in 1835.[18] He later moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, and then migrated west with the Aaron Johnson pioneer company in 1850 with his wife, Lucy Maranda (Bailey) White, son Joel White, and Joel’s wife, Frane Ann (Thomas) White.[19]

I asked ChatGPT to create an image that could represent Jemima after uploading the images of John Griggs White and Joseph Knight used in this post. Here’s the prompt I used: “Create an image after the style in these uploaded images for Jemima Griggs, a mother of ten children, when she was 35 years old; she lived in Roxbury, Massachusetts in about 1785.” This is the resulting image:

Conclusion

Many settlers of the Massachusetts Bay colony migrated west in the early 1800s to New York and Ohio. Some of the first people to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were descendants of the early colonists in Massachusetts. Among them were Joseph Knight Sr., who was a close associate of Joseph Smith Jr., and John Griggs White, the son of Jemima (Griggs) White. More research on the life and family of Jemima (Griggs) White could help with understanding her children’s birth and death dates and places, as well her and her husband’s death dates and places.

Future Research

• Find original record for Joseph Knight Sr.’s birth in Oakham. The link in his profile in FamilySearch doesn’t work anymore – it was supposed to go to ma-vitalrecords.org
• Determine why there is a 1778 death record for a female married to John White in Roxbury, when Jemima (Griggs) White supposedly had children up until 1802 and died about 1803. The death record attached to Jemima in FamilySearch for 1778 is a derivative.[20] This probably belongs to a different John White and his wife.
• Find an original record for John Griggs White birth in Roxbury.
• Determine when Jemima (Griggs) White died. Her FamilySearch profile states 1803, after the birth of her son Joel in 1802, but the source attached to her death are for a Mrs. John White who died in 1778.
• Determine when Jemima’s husband, John White, died. His FamilySearch profile says 1802, but there are not sources attached.
• Find death dates for all of Jemima Griggs’ children.

 

Notes

[1] “Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FH24-S7W : accessed 24 February 2025), death of  John Knight, 1 December 1714.

[2] Diane L. Mangum, “The First Knights in America,” June 2020, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/en/memories/memory/143146644?cid=mem_copy : accessed 24 February 2025).

[3] Diane L. Mangum, “The First Knights in America,” June 2020, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/en/memories/memory/143146644?cid=mem_copy : accessed 24 February 2025).

[4] Diane L. Mangum, “The First Knights in America,” June 2020, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/en/memories/memory/143146644?cid=mem_copy : accessed 24 February 2025).

[5] Diane L. Mangum, “The First Knights in America,” June 2020, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/en/memories/memory/143146644?cid=mem_copy : accessed 24

[6] “Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2495/records/80736864 : accessed 24 February 2025), Joseph Knight, born 26 November 1772 in Oakham.

[7] “Knight, Joseph, Sr.,” The Joseph Smith Papers (https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/person/joseph-knight-sr : accessed 24 February 2025).

[8] “Knight, Joseph, Sr.,” The Joseph Smith Papers (https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/person/joseph-knight-sr : accessed 24 February 2025).

[9] “The Knight and Whitmer Families,” Revelations in Context, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/revelations-in-context/the-knight-and-whitmer-families?lang=eng : accessed 24 February 2025).

[10] “The Knight and Whitmer Families,” Revelations in Context, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/revelations-in-context/the-knight-and-whitmer-families?lang=eng : accessed 24 February 2025).

[11] Doctrine and Covenants, Section 12; online version, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/12?lang=eng : accessed 24 February 2025).

[12] “Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1848,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5333/records/52880 : accessed 24 February 2025), Joseph Knight Sr.

[13] “Knight, Joseph, Sr.,” The Joseph Smith Papers (https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/person/joseph-knight-sr : accessed 24 February 2025).

[14] “Massachusetts, Births and Christenings, 1639-1915,” FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VQ62-224 : 24 February 2026), Jemima Griggs, 1753.

[15] “Massachusetts, State Vital Records, 1638-1927,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FC8D-SLQ : 24 February 2025), John White and Jemima Griggs, 12 September 1775.

[16] “Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1848,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5333/records/96369 : accessed 24 February 2025), John Griggs White. See also “Church History Biographical Database,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/individual/john-griggs-white-1776 : accessed 24 February 2025), John Griggs White.

[17] Jemima Griggs, ID MPN3-H55, FamilySearch Family Tree (https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/MPN3-H55 : accessed 24 February 2025).

[18] “John Griggs White,” contributed by Mary Ann Landefeld, 14 December 2024, FamilySearch Family Tree (https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/212259174?cid=mem_copy : accessed 24 February 2025).

[19] “Church History Biographical Database,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/individual/john-griggs-white-1776 : accessed 24 February 2025), John Griggs White.

[20] “Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FH5K-F65 :24 February 2025), Entry for White and John White, 27 Sep 1778.