Elizabeth Jones

1814–1895

Sealed to Brigham Young 3 July 1869 — she was 55, he was 68.

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

Utah

Who she was, and what happened

Widow of Dan Jones, the celebrated Welsh missionary. Known as the 'Welsh Queen' for her generosity to poor Welsh emigrants, and Brigham praised her publicly. She had asked to marry him in the 1850s and he REFUSED; only after Dan Jones died in 1862 did they kneel at the Endowment House altar, seven years later. Ann Eliza Webb alleged he married her for her Provo property; Turner is sceptical, noting she had been asking for years. She ended up running the grueling Forest Farm at sixty-one, and in 1875 Brigham threatened to replace her if she did not take better care of it.

Key dates

1869 Sealed to him 3 July 1869 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
1895 Died 1895

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

Nothing from her, and no life of her written by anyone else.

None of her own. An obituary; she is discussed in the Welsh mission literature.

'Death of Sister Jones,' Deseret Evening News

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: 1814
Died: 1895
Died at: Not established here
Outlived Brigham Young?: Yes
Marriage or sealing: 3 July 1869
Her age at the marriage: 55
His age at the marriage: 68
Age gap: 13 years
Phase of his life: Utah, 1860s
Type of sealing: Not recorded ?
Already married to another man?: No ?
Her other husbands: (1) David T. Lewis (2) Dan Jones
Widow of Joseph Smith?: No
Sexual relationship?: Unlikely
Children by Brigham Young: 0
Lived with him?: Sent to Forest Farm; unhappy there
Divorce or separation: None recorded
Named in his will?: No
Sealed to him as an adopted daughter first?: No ?
Kin tie to him or another wife: None recorded
Left the church?: Remained LDS (documented)
Remarried after Brigham Young?: No
Her later husband(s): None recorded

Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1; Turner p. 376

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.