Richard Watkins was born 24 July 1792 in Banwille, Somersetshire, England to William Watkins and Mary Ford. Ruth Hamblin was born 25 November 1792 at Clevedon, Sommersetshire, England, to William Hamblin and his wife Molly (maiden name unknown). Richard and Ruth married on 26 December 1815 in St. James, Bristol, Gloucestershire, England. The Watkins had seven children.
On 12 February 1837, when their youngest child was five years old, Richard died at Wrington, Somersetshire, England. He was a land owner and employed a number of people. Evidently the family remained together and worked the land. Later Ruth Hamblin Watkins married a Mr. James Bartlett who was a cooper and had his own shop. She had been almost completely deaf for three years when the Mormon missionaries came to her home and asked if they might hold a meeting there. After explaining who they were and that they had a message for the people, she said yes, that she liked anything that was good and would open her doors and would invite her family and the neighbors to hear what the missionaries had to say.
When the meeting was held, they asked her to take a front seat because of her deafness, thinking she might be able to hear some of their talks. After the meeting was over the Elders asked her if she had heard any of it and she replied, “I have heard every word distinctly,” and asked for baptism. Her husband, Mr. Bartlett, was afflicted with paralysis and was forced to use crutches. When he became converted and asked for baptism the Elders told him that he could not expect to be healed unless he had sufficient faith. When he was ready for baptism, one of the sons of Ruth Hamblin Watkins by her first marriage was ordained an Elder so that he could help with the baptism on account of Mr. Bartlett's condition.
After the baptism, his crutches were brought to help him out of the water. He said he did no need them and walked out of the water and all the way home without the aid of anyone. Next morning he walked down to his coopers shop and made an oak bucket and carried it through the town declaring to all the people that he had been healed by the power of the Lord and through his faith. Through this testimony many people in England were converted to the church.
Ruth Hamblin Watkins died April 21, 1871. She is our first ancestor to be baptized into the church. Evidently Ruth Hamblin Watkin's baptism was not properly recorded or records were lost since we don't have the date and baptism by proxy was performed for her in the Logan Temple on August 15, 1893. However her son, Charles Frederick Watkins, who helped baptize Mr. Bartlett, was baptized November 30, 1849. So she was probably baptized near the same date. He also baptized his oldest sister, Sarah Ann Watkins, on June 16, 1850.
