In 1958, Annie Isabel Haslam Luce admitted that her father John S Haslam was the illegitimate son of Prince William, later King William IV of England. This had been kept strictly confidential in the family over the years. His Mother, Elizabeth (Betsy) Haslam was a lady worker and teacher at the Duke of Bridgewater's Manor House Estate at Worsley. The Duke of Bridgewater enjoyed an excellent relationship with the Royal Family at Windsor Castle near London, and was held in high regard because of his engineering skill in canal and bridge construction. He and Prince William visited each other on many occasions. It was not uncommon for them to include their servants and staff on these occasions. It is reasonably certain that Betsy Haslam accompanied the Bridgewater party on their visits to Windsor Castle. During this time she bore an illegitimate son on May 31, 1823 who she named John. This event, according to our researcher, Edith Norris of Bolton, England was greatly talked about by the people in Bolton, and they were convinced that Prince William had fathered the child. Mrs. Norris remembered this being discussed in her family when she was young. Although no acknowledgment was made of an open financial settlement, our researcher, Jennie Weeks of Salt Lake City, Utah said that Prince William sent a bag of money periodically to support the child, according to three sources of information she had received from England. John was seven years old when Prince William became King William IV.

According to my grandmother, Mary Ann Kay Haslam (the second wife of John S Haslam), John had to work in the coal mine as a child, where there was no equipment or machinery to do the work. John had to carry coal in baskets on top of his head which caused him to have a thick neck. Later at the age of fourteen his mother bound him over to a Mr. Wordley to learn the blacksmith trade. He did not receive any wages, just his room and board. He was near Bolton. It is thought that his mother died, and John was adopted or reared by the Hardmans. Jane Hardman was Betsy's sister. This would tend to support the fact that there seemed to be substance and means behind the Hardman family. Local people assumed this support came from the Royal Family since the Hardmans appeared to prosper even during economically depressed times. When John was sixteen years of age, he served in the British Navy for a while, later leaving for America, never to go back to England. However, his relatives, the Hardmans, corresponded with him.

In 1842, John S Haslam was converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Orson Hyde, and was baptized by him when John was nineteen years of age. John immigrated to the United States in the Fall of 1842 on the same ship that Orson Hyde was on. Elder Hyde was returning from his mission where he dedicated Jerusalem for the return of the Jews. While on the ship crossing the ocean, John heard some men plotting to take the life of Orson Hyde upon landing. He went to Orson Hyde and told him what he had heard, telling him to get away as soon as possible. The Captain of the boat let Orson Hyde disembark ahead, holding the other passengers and crew until he was safely ahead. Thus his life was saved by this timely warning.

John S Haslam tarried in St. Louis, Missouri for two years, until the summer of 1844. The Samuel Hamer Sr. family were very kind to John, and he loved them very much. He went to work for Samuel Hamer Sr. as a blacksmith. He was later married to Martha Hamer on March 4, 1845, by Orson Hyde, in St. Louis, Missouri. Samuel Worthen was witness to this marriage. Martha had a sister Anna, and a sister Jane Ellen, who worked for Joseph Smith; and two brothers Samuel Jr. and John. John and Martha moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, where John was ordained to the office of a Seventy in the church on May 31, 1845, on his 22nd birthday, and belonged to the 29th Quorum of Seventies. Here they built a one-room house of logs. John and Martha received their temple endowments in Nauvoo, on January 30, 1846, the only year the temple was in use. He remained in Nauvoo until the Saints were expelled in 1846. He started Westward with the Saints, arriving in Winter Quarters (now Omaha, Nebraska) in the Fall of 1846, working at his trade of Blacksmith on his way West. His services were in such demand to construct wagons for the Westward trek of the pioneers, that Brigham Young requested him to tarry at the point of outfitting for the Saints, that his own arrival in the Salt Lake Valley was delayed until October 1851. He was with the Orson Pratt Company while crossing the plains. The story is told that food was so scarce, and his family had nothing to eat so the family had family prayer. Later a very large rabbit ran into their tent, which they cooked and ate. The next day two men in a wagon inquired for John S Haslam, saying they had been sent to give him some bacon and cornmeal. Their prayers had been answered.

John had eleven children by his first wife, Martha Hamer. She died in Salt Lake City, Utah just after her youngest child, Ruth was born. The baby Ruth died September 6, 1867 when she was about three months old. The names of their other children were Jane Ellen, John Joseph, Samuel, Martha Ann, Thomas, Elizabeth, Brigham, William, Mary, and Joshua.

In the Fall of 1867, he was called by President Brigham Young to take his family and go on a mission to settle Panaca, Lincoln County, Utah. (Later on Nevada made a survey, and Panaca was found to be in the State of Nevada). This was called the "Muddy Mission". President Young advised him to get married again, and suggested that he marry Mary Ann Kay Openshaw. On November 9, 1867 they were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah. This wife had a little girl, Martha Jane, by a previous marriage to George Openshaw. This marriage was dissolved by a temple divorce with the approval of Brigham Young, because she had been mistreated. Two weeks later following their marriage, they left Salt Lake City for the mission, a distance of 300 miles away. In Salt Lake City John S Haslam owned a large section, ten acres, of a block of land between 1st and 2nd North, and between 5th and 6th West Streets. He sold all the land except 200 feet or so each way from the Northeast corner of the block for a team of oxen to use to make the trip with to his mission. They travelled by ox-team and wagon and arrived a few days before Christmas in December 1867. His friend and brother-in-law, Samuel Hamer Jr. and his family were also called to go on this mission. On arrival they built a blacksmith shop and worked together for 3 1/2 years. These were years of unbelievable hardship. They first lived in a dugout, where their children Maggie, and James Kay Haslam were born. (James Kay Haslam was my father). Later they had a tent to live in. Joshua's father had bought him a new pocket knife before leaving Salt Lake City. Joshua, almost three years old would not eat his dinner one day. He was sent outside while the family ate dinner. This made him angry, and he cut the tent ropes with his pocket knife. He said that he got a good spanking which he never forgot. Following a survey by the State of Nevada, Panaca was declared legally to be a part of Nevada, therefore these settlers were asked to pay back taxes to the State of Nevada, and could not pay more to Utah. Brigham Young gave permission for these settlers to return to their homes in Utah. However, six families chose to remain and fight the issue in court. The Judge gave the verdict in their favor, saying they had paid their taxes conscientiously to the State of Utah, and therefore they would not be required to pay their taxes to Nevada. However, from then on the settlers who remained were to pay their taxes to Nevada. This situation, combined with poor crops, extreme hardships, and coping with Indians who helped themselves to the settlers' belonging, were discouraging enough to make these pioneers forsake Panaca, and return to their former homes or go wherever they chose. John S Haslam and family returned to Salt Lake City in June 1871, and built a two-room house and summer kitchen on the property he had reserved for that purpose. Later on he built additional rooms on, the house being part brick and part frame. They had a flowing well on the property, north of their house. Mary Ann was a wonderful mother to the large family, and a great blessing. The children all loved and revered her as long as she lived (89 1/2 years). After moving to Salt Lake City three more children were born to them: Zina, July 13, 1873, Enos Moroni, August 29, 1875, and Annie Isabel, February 20, 1878. Maggie died of Scarlet Fever at the age of six years, and Enos and Zina died within a week of each other with Diphtheria. In those days they had high mortality rate. John and Mary lost seven children in twelve years in addition to John and Martha's baby Ruth, and Martha herself in 1867. One child died each year for four years, and two in one week from contagious diseases. This indicated the trying times that they lived in. John S Haslam had sixteen children by his two wives, and adopted Martha Jane Openshaw whom he raised as his own.

He was a tall handsome man with dark tightly-curled hair and brown eyes. He was a conscientious workman, and lived a clean and highly respected life. There is a story that Heber C. Kimball asked him to repair a wheel on his wagon so that his family could go to a celebration. Noticing that the Kimball children needed shoes, he refused to take any money, but instead said to use the money to buy shoes for the children. He was very religious, and helped to instill spirituality in the hearts of his children. He was an usher in the historic Salt Lake Tabernacle for years. He lived a humble and dedicated life.

John S Haslam worked for James Lawson, a blacksmith, at his shop at 2nd West and 1st North Streets. He also worked in the church blacksmith shop for Brigham Young located near the corner of North Temple and State Street. He worked at what he could until he got work at the Utah Central Railroad. It was here that he got a piece of steel in his eye, requiring him to have an operation on it. Several people at work helped to raise the money for the surgery, but it was not a success, and he went blind in that eye. In November he wrote to Rodger Hardman in England, that he had a cataract on his other eye, and that he might have to have surgery on it. This was in 1882. He was totally blind before he died on November 27, 1883. His death was caused by Bronchitis, or Consumption apparently, when he was sixty years of age. He was a member of the 16th Ward, one of the first wards established in the valley, where many well-known members of the church lived. John S Haslam's obituary notice in the Deseret News said, "He lived a faithful Saint, and died in the hope of a glorious resurrection." After his death, his widow Mary Ann earned a living for their family by operating a grocery store in the large front room of their home for several years. Her daughter, who never married, worked very hard as a dressmaker to support her mother in her elderly years. Mary Ann lived to be 89 1/2 years old. Martha Jane was very devoted to her and took excellent care of her as long as she lived. 

Note: It was said by family members that John S Haslam was one of six men who buried the prophet secretly in the soil of the Nauvoo House after Joseph Smith was assassinated, so that his enemies could not find and desecrate his body.

The above history was written in 1975 by Martha Gladys Haslam Drennan, a grand-daughter, with most of the information submitted kindly by her Aunt Martha Jane Openshaw Haslam.

This biography is on file at the Daughters of Utah Pioneer Library, Salt Lake City. It was submitted by Martha Drennan, 1873 E. 5151 So., Salt Lake City, 84117, in 1975. She listed as her sources: Mary Ann Kay Haslam; Annie Haslam Luce: Martha Jane Openshaw Haslam; Jennie Weeks, Researcher at Salt Lake City; Edith Norris, Researcher in Bolton, England; letters from the Hardman family in possession of Myrel Haslam Payne.