Sampson Avard

Early life

Sampson Avard was born at St. Peter, Guernsey, Channel Islands, United Kingdom. As an immigrant in the United States, he worked as a physician and later became a Campbellite minister in Pennsylvania.

Mormon convert

In 1835 in Freedom, Pennsylvania, Orson Pratt baptized him a member of Church of the Latter Day Saints

Church elder

and ordained him an Elder and leader of the local branch of the church. After serving a mission near his home with Erastus Snow, he moved to the Latter Day Saint community at Kirtland, Ohio in 1836. He was ordained a High Priest in 1837, though his position as a High Priest was also revoked that same year for unclear reasons.

Danites

In 1838, while living in Far West, Missouri and serving in the church's High Council there, Avard witnessed the heated conflict between the growing Mormon population and the established non-Mormon Missourians. He was the founding organizer and leader of the Danites, a secret paramilitary vigilante militia, bound by oaths and intent on retaliating for Mormon injuries and losses. It remains unclear the extent to which Joseph Smith was aware or in favor of Avard's activities, although he recognized the Danites and encouraged them to be lawful. Danite militaristic activities intensified the 1838 Mormon War and drew the attention of state government and militia.

Arrest and excommunication

After the Mormons were expelled from the Missouri and Joseph Smith was arrested, Avard was the chief witness against Smith, testifying that Smith was the mastermind behind the Danites. Smith denounced the group as "frauds and secret abominations" and excommunicated Avard in March 1839. Avard never attempted to return to the Latter Day Saints.

Post-Mormon years

In 1850 Sampson Avard was practicing medicine in Edwardsville, Illinois.

Death

Sampson Avard died in 1869 in Edwardsville, Madison County, Illinois.