Prototype. Nobody named on this site has agreed to take part in it — what that means.
The Wives of Brigham Young 55 women, named — and given back their own words

We could not find a photograph of her. If you hold one — a descendant's album, a county archive, a gravestone portrait — it would fill this space permanently. Write to mormonstories@gmail.com.

No. 27 on Johnson's list — but this page is hers

Jemima Angell

1803–1869

Sealed to Brigham Young 28 Jan 1846 — she was 43, he was 45.

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

Nauvoo temple, January-February 1846

Who she was, and what happened

His FIRST WIFE'S SISTER. Widowed by her first husband and no longer living with her second, she was sealed to Brigham on the same day as his two mothers-in-law. Turner reads these as sealings that gave women whose earlier marriages had brought 'bitter disappointment' the chance to choose an earthly protector and an eternal husband. SOURCES DISAGREE on her prior husband's name: Johnson says Valentine Young, Turner's endnote 56 says Stringham.

Key dates

  1. 1846 Sealed to him 28 Jan 1846 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
  2. 1869 Died 1869

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; a life of her was written by someone else.

A BIOGRAPHICAL TYPESCRIPT about her by descendants.

McCandless and Frantz, 'History of Jemima Angell Young,' n.d., typescript

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
1803
Died
1869
Died at
Not established here
Outlived Brigham Young?
No - died before him
Marriage or sealing
28 Jan 1846
Her age at the marriage
43
His age at the marriage
45
Age gap
2 years
Phase of his life
Nauvoo temple (Jan-Feb 1846)
Type of sealing
Time & eternity ?
Already married to another man?
Yes (Turner n. 56) ?
Her other husbands
(1) Valentine Young per Johnson / Stringham per Turner
Widow of Joseph Smith?
No
Sexual relationship?
Unlikely
Children by Brigham Young
0
Lived with him?
Unknown
Divorce or separation
None recorded
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
SISTER of first wife Mary Ann Angell (#2)
Left the church?
Not documented here
Remarried after Brigham Young?
No
Her later husband(s)
None recorded

Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1; Turner p. 134 and n. 56. PRIOR HUSBAND CONTESTED

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.