Background
Avard was born at Saint Peter, Guernsey, Channel Islands.
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Sampson Avard
Edit ProfileCareer
As an immigrant in the United States, he worked as a physician and later became a Campbellite minister in Pennsylvania. 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
lieutenant 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.
Afterward
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.
By 1850 he was practicing medicine in Edwardsville, Illinois, where he died in 1869.
Membership
In 1835 in Freedom, Pennsylvania, Orson Pratt baptized him a member of Church of the Latter Day Saints and ordained him an Elder and leader of the local branch of the church.
