Searching for Israel and Finding the Arthurian Legends

Some years ago, I hired a professional genealogist to do some work on the Beck line of my ancestry. A lot had been done for the Rigbys and Jacobs and Austins, etc., but not much for the Becks. The genealogist came across some interesting finds. First, my great, great, great grandfather, James Beck, joined the Mormon Church while he was working in Liverpool, England. He immigrated to Nauvoo and eventually was in the second wagon train to enter the Salt Lake Valley. His son, from an earlier marriage, John Beck, was in the first. Beck street in Salt Lake City, Utah was named for him. He left behind a handwritten little book that is in the Church History Archives, and he had a patriarchal blessing that I could arrange to get a copy of, since I was a direct descendant.

Meralee Stallings – Me
Ruth Rigby – My Mother
Alvin Beck Rigby – My Grandfather
Mary Elizabeth Beck – My Great Grandmother
Jonas Nuttal Beck – My Great, Great Grandfather
James Beck – My Great, Great, Great Grandfather.

I made the arrangements, and some weeks later got a photocopy of the hand scribed patriarchal blessing which I held on to for some months, meaning to type it up at some later time. And so there it sat.

On day, I was wandering through the Deseret Book store and picked up the title: “Whence Came They?: Israel, Britain and the Restoration,” by Vaughn E. Hansen. I was a little intrigued as I read the back cover and the inside flap, but shrugged my shoulders and put it back on the shelf.

The very next day, I decided it was time to transcribe my great, great, great grandfather James Beck’s patriarchal blessing. I sat down at my 20 MB hard drive computer, pulled up my Word Perfect 5.0 word processing program and began typing away. About one third of the way through I nearly fell off my chair. Here is what I typed.

“God hath preserved thee in the midst of the destruction which have passed through the earth, to be a Savior on Mt. Zion in the last days. & He hath appointed thee to save thy father’s house, even clear back to where they died in the gospel…”

“…where they died in the gospel…” What???? Do you mean I had ancestors, clear back in the time of the ancient apostles, who were faithful members of Christ’s true Church?

James Beck may have joined the Mormon Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Liverpool, England, but he was born and raised in Dumfrieshire, Scotland. The patriarchal blessing also said, “…thou art a lawful heir to the priesthood which was sealed upon the head of Ephraim, the son of Joseph, for this is thy lineage & thy descent:…”

I went back to Deseret Book and bought “Whence Came They?”

It was a book of some interest, but it did not delve deep enough for my taste. It was like whetting my appetite, giving me a tiny taste of Swiss Chocolate from Merkurs. I wanted to indulge myself! I hit the history books. I visited libraries and book stores. I bought books. The internet was still a new thing and not everywhere, but eventually I would find that too.

And what I found was a fascinating culture emerging from the dust of obscurity, a culture so foreign to the Romans they didn’t know what to do with it but try to slaughter it. Yet, the culture would not die. Instead it created one of the greatest legends of Western Civilization:

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table!

Next Week: The traditions of the British Isles.