Lyman returned to “feel after” Brannan and his wealth in early January 1850. The messenger’s journal did not describe the conversation, but it contained no hint of conflict. He returned in June accompanied by fellow apostle Charles C. Rich, and relations between the men were again cordial—and financially advantageous for Lyman. Rich wrote on June 28: “We paid Mr. Samuel Brannan a visit and learned from him that he stood alone and knew no one, only himself and his family. He agreed to turn over some books.” Lyman’s journal even noted that Brannan “made me a present of some $500.” Brannan’s “present” appears to have been a successful attempt to buy the support of his old friend, who apparently never informed Young of Brannan’s generosity.

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When Lyman did get around to reporting his visit to Salt Lake, he wrote that he had resolved the church’s claims against Brannan, which centered on debts and assets related to the Brooklyn voyage. “[Brannan] now disclaims any connection or interest with the Church,” Lyman wrote. He added that Brannan regarded “communications from the Brethren…rather as insults than otherwise.” Brannan was a lost cause, and “making drafts on him has amounted to a waste of paper and time.” Young apparently wanted Lyman to confiscate the press of The California Star, the newspaper Brannan had launched soon after landing in California, but Brannan had already sold the machine and claimed he had paid for it himself “with the exception of some $300, which he expected to pay on his return to New York.”

Lyman’s last conversation with Brannan also dealt with debts. “He stated that he had borrowed or raised money, for which he had given his receipts which money was to be credited to the individuals furnishing it as tithing,” the apostle wrote. The money—some $1,700, borrowed from John Neff and John Van Cott—was spent on the Brooklyn venture, an official church operation. “Brannan says he is ready to pay on the presentation of his receipts, which are in the hands of Brothers Neff and Van Cott of the Valley and Brother Barus of Boston, by forwarding the receipts as early as possible.”

Brannan kept his word to Lyman and reimbursed the Saints. Lyman wrote from San Bernardino in 1853 that he had received $500 “we collected of Samuel Brannan on the receipt held by John Van Cott.” This apparently paid off the last of Brannan’s Mormon debts.

By the time Brannan settled his accounts, Apostle Parley P. Pratt, his old partner in the newspaper business, had “disfellowshipped” him from the LDS Church. Pratt gave Brannan the boot in September 1851 for “a general course of unchristianlike conduct, neglect of duty, and combining with lawless assemblies to commit murder and other crimes,” a reference to Brannan’s leadership of San Francisco’s first band of vigilantes. Interestingly, Pratt said nothing about robbing the Saints—or the Lord—even though he later denounced his former colleague as “a corrupt and wicked man.”

No one can know exactly what transpired during Lyman’s meetings with Brannan. If the apostle brought along Porter Rockwell, there’s no evidence to show it. But the discussion of receipts looks like the genesis of the “receipt signed by the Lord” legend and suggests Brannan himself made up the story partly based on his recollection of discussions with Lyman. It’s easy to imagine an older Brannan in his cups, regaling his audience with the story of how he defied Brigham Young, a tale that grew more colorful over time. At Brannan’s death, George E. Barnes told how Brannan was “custodian of all the gold” gathered at Mormon Bar, “which, as the story goes, they saw for the last time when it passed into his hands.” When the authorities at Salt Lake demanded the gold, they “were refused by Brannan with a coarse joke, too common to be repeated here.” Barnes’ delicacy suggests that the popular story about a receipt signed by the Lord may be a sanitized version of a more explicit original.

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