Early on, Partridge was part of the Universal Restorationist movement but he later became a reformed Baptist (also known as the Disciples of Christ or the Cambellites), a religious group led by Sidney Rigdon.

[1] Partridge was sent to New York in 1830 by a group of Painesville citizens affiliated with the reformer baptist movement to investigate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, traveling with Sidney Rigdon.

[5] After his baptism, Partridge traveled to the Latter Day Saint settlement of Kirtland, Ohio, with Sidney Rigdon and Emma Smith.

In this position he helped lead the Mormon settlement in Jackson County, Missouri, and managed land distribution under the law of consecration.

[1] He was tarred and feathered by an anti-Mormon mob on July 20, 1833, in front of the courthouse in Independence, Missouri, where he had been assigned to preside as bishop.

Joseph Smith suggested that Partridge's death could be attributed to the stress and persecution which he and other Mormon settlers in western Missouri were subjected to in the 1830s.