Hannah Tapfield King

1807–1886

Sealed to Brigham Young 8 Dec 1872 — she was 65, he was 71.

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

HIS LAST MARRIAGE, and a pure eternity-only sealing. A Cambridge-born English writer and poet who joined the church in 1850 and came to Utah in 1853 WITH her non-Mormon husband, who never converted. Sealed to Brigham for eternity in 1872 at sixty-five; Johnson is explicit that 'this sealing did not affect her relationship with her husband, and she never became part of the Brigham Young household.' She published 'Songs of the Heart' (1879) and an epic poem on the rise of the church (1884). If you want one row that proves 'wife' did not mean marriage, it is this one - or Mary Elizabeth Rollins at #21.

Key dates

1872 Sealed to him 8 Dec 1872 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
1886 Died 1886

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.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY, plus two published books of her own poetry - she was a professional writer.

Hannah Tapfield King, Autobiography, c.1864-1872; Songs of the Heart (1879); Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography v.3

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: 1807
Died: 1886
Died at: Salt Lake City
Outlived Brigham Young?: Yes
Marriage or sealing: 8 Dec 1872
Her age at the marriage: 65
His age at the marriage: 71
Age gap: 6 years
Phase of his life: Utah, 1870s
Type of sealing: Eternity only ?
Already married to another man?: Yes (Turner n. 56) ?
Her other husbands: (1) Thomas O. King
Widow of Joseph Smith?: No
Sexual relationship?: No
Children by Brigham Young: 0
Lived with him?: NO - never part of the household
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 - stayed with Thomas King
Her later husband(s): None recorded

Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1 and p. 66; Turner n. 56; Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography v.3

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.