Augusta Adams Cobb

1802–1886

Sealed to Brigham Young 2 Nov 1843 — she was 41, he was 42.

This was a sealing, not a marriage in law — plural marriage had no legal standing. What that meant.

Nauvoo, during Joseph Smith's life

Who she was, and what happened

The most quotable and most miserable. A Boston society woman who LEFT her husband and five of her children to follow Brigham to Nauvoo, was sealed to him without ever being civilly divorced, and buried her infant son on the journey. By January 1846 she wanted out: 'I can never be yours in the position you have placed me.' Her counter-proposal was to be sealed to JESUS CHRIST - and failing that, 'I will take the next step and go to Joseph.' In 1848 Brigham finally agreed to give her up to Joseph Smith 'in the morning of the first resurrection'; she promptly told everyone and signed herself Augusta A. Young Smith. She called him 'Lord Brigham,' 'his Excellency,' 'Mr. Proxy,' and 'Alien,' and called herself the Lion of the Lord's 'Lioness.' He sometimes refused to see her for months.

Key dates

1843 Sealed to him 2 Nov 1843 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
no date Temple sealing confirmed Confirmed in the Nauvoo temple, Jan-Feb 1846. Documented, but Johnson gives no date

Nothing here is inferred. Johnson's Table 1 has one date column, so where an event is documented but undated it is shown as "no date" rather than given a spurious one — the missing date is itself a fact about how these records were kept. Only two of the fifty-five have a civil marriage date; for the other fifty-three the single date records a sealing, because plural marriage had no standing in law.

What survives in her own words

She left words of her own.

LETTERS - and they are the richest first-person source of any wife on this list. No memoir.

Turner pp. 137-38, 192-93; O'Donovan, JMH 38:2

15 of the fifty-five left words of their own. The rest are known only through other people's papers. What that silence means.

The record

Born: 1802
Died: 1886
Died at: Not established here
Outlived Brigham Young?: Yes
Marriage or sealing: 2 Nov 1843
Her age at the marriage: 41
His age at the marriage: 42
Age gap: 1 years
Phase of his life: During Joseph Smith's life
Type of sealing: Time & eternity ?
Already married to another man?: Yes (Turner n. 56) ?
Her other husbands: (1) Henry Cobb
Widow of Joseph Smith?: No
Sexual relationship?: Probable
Children by Brigham Young: 0
Lived with him?: Yes - Lion House, middle story
Divorce or separation: Repeatedly requested; never granted
Named in his will?: Not applicable or not recorded
Sealed to him as an adopted daughter first?: No ?
Kin tie to him or another wife: None recorded
Left the church?: Remained LDS (documented) - but tried to leave BY, not the faith
Remarried after Brigham Young?: No
Her later husband(s): None recorded

Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1; Turner pp. 137-38, 192-93

A blank or “not established here” means the fact was not documented in the sources behind this table. It does not mean zero, and it does not mean no. We leave it empty rather than guessing, because inventing a detail of her life would be another way of not listening to her. The size of that gap is the argument for the book she never got.