Did Joseph Smith send men on missions and then marry their wives? Ep. 180

Over the years lots of people have claimed that Joseph Smith sent men on missions and then married their wives. Is it true? That’s the question Dave explores in this episode.

Video transcript: https://saintsunscripted.com/faith-and-beliefs/the-restoration-of-christs-church/did-joseph-smith-send-men-missions-marry-their-wives/

— “Biographies of Joseph Smith’s Plural Wives,” via JosephSmithsPolygamy.org: https://bit.ly/3Su6jv9
— “Did Joseph Smith send men on missions in order to ‘steal’ their wives?” via FAIR: https://bit.ly/3Pe9dC7
— “Did Joseph Smith send Apostle Orson Hyde on a mission so that he could secretly marry his wife Marinda while he was gone?” via FAIR: https://bit.ly/3uRXmln
— “Joseph Smith’s Personal Polygamy,” by Brian Hales: https://bit.ly/3Swak24
— “Joseph Smith’s Sexual Polyandry and the Emperor’s New Clothes: On Closer Inspection, What Do We Find?” by Brian Hales: https://bit.ly/3RDPy01
— “Was Joseph Smith sealed or married to other men’s wives without the knowledge or consent of the husbands?” via FAIR: https://bit.ly/3vInCPq
— Gospel Topics essay: “Plural Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” via the Church website: https://bit.ly/3AYGVav
— Gospel Topics essay: “Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo,” via the Church’s website: https://bit.ly/2MITdwO
— Gospel Topics essay: “Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah,” via the Church’s website: https://bit.ly/3PxO2eo
— Gospel Topics essay: “The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage,” via the Church’s website: https://bit.ly/3ySG7kT
— “‘Denying the Undeniable’: Examining Early Mormon Polygamy Renunciations,” via Brian Hales: https://bit.ly/3v3l6TG
— “The Prophet Secretly Teaches Polygamy,” via Brian Hales: https://bit.ly/3PepVBo
— 1859 claim that Joseph sent 3 men on missions and married their wives (patently false): https://bit.ly/3z7BdSy Research from FAIR debunking this: https://bit.ly/3Pe9dC7
— “The Prophet Joseph Smith and His Plural Wives,” (a book review) by Richard Lloyd Anderson & Scott Faulring (BYU Studies): https://bit.ly/35kg6wN
— John C. Bennett claims that Joseph sent men on missions to marry their wives: https://bit.ly/3OdrFcK / https://bit.ly/3uRbn2E / https://bit.ly/3Pd2kkJ
— Two sources for Marinda Nancy Johnson’s marriage to Joseph: (1843) https://bit.ly/3z8AEru / (1842)

Notes:

— Side-note: David Sessions received his Elders license in May, 1842. My understanding is that this license was given to everyone ordained to that office of the priesthood. The license was required in order to be a missionary, but not everyone with a license was immediately sent on a mission (many “Elders” never served missions). For example, Henry Jacobs (husband of Zina Huntington) received his license on April 13, 1840, but did not serve a mission until January, 1842.

— Quote from Brian Hales: “In 1842 John C Bennett claimed that the Prophet had sent men on missions so he could marry their wives in Nauvoo. This statement is contradicted by multiple historical data. Of the thirteen ‘polyandrous’ husbands, we have no sealing dates for three, and nine were not on missions at the time Joseph was sealed to their legal wives.Only one, Orson Hyde, is documented as on a mission at the time of Marinda Johnson Hyde’s sealing to Joseph Smith and he had been gone for well over a year. Also, we have two sealing dates for Marinda, one while Orson was away and another in an affidavit saying the sealing occurred after he had returned. This popular assertion is simply not true.” (Via personal correspondence — I’m not sure whether or not it is found in a separate publication.)

— A few more examples of this claim that Joseph sent men on missions and married their wives:

English clergyman, Henry Caswall, 1843: “…many English and American women, whose husbands or fathers had been sent by the prophet on distant missions, were induced to become his ‘spiritual wives,’…” Source: https://bit.ly/3zwFMEZ

Excommunicated member Benjamin Winchester, 1889: “It was a subject of common talk among many good people in Nauvoo that many of the elders were sent off on missions merely to get them out of the way, and that Joseph Smith, John C. Bennett and other prominent Church lights had illicit intercourse with the wives of a number of the missionaries…” Source: https://bit.ly/3QlwCSj

Nonmember Harry Beardsley, 1931: “Joe remained in hiding in Nauvoo for several months, dividing his time between a dozen hide-outs — among them homes of Mormons where there were attractive daughters, or where the husbands were away on missionary tours.” Source: https://bit.ly/3Jw0OrV

Modern antagonistic source, MormonThink, chooses their words carefully (leaving much to the imagination) by only noting that “It is said that Joseph sent men on missions overseas then married their wives.”

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