Lucy Bigelow

1830–1905

Sealed to Brigham Young 20 Mar 1847 — she was 17, he was 46.

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

Crossing the plains

Who she was, and what happened

Sixteen or seventeen when she and her SISTER Mary Jane were both sealed to Brigham on the same day at Winter Quarters. The sisters' paths then diverged completely: Lucy bore him three daughters, ran his St. George household in his last years, and stayed to the end; Mary Jane turned back on the trail and divorced him in 1851. Lucy's daughter Susa Young Gates became the family's genealogist and one of the most prominent Mormon women of her generation - and it is Susa's 1920 list that keeps Maria Lawrence in the count.

Key dates

1847 Sealed to him 20 Mar 1847 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
1905 Died 1905

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 BIOGRAPHY written by her daughter Susa Young Gates, plus Susa's own recollections.

Susa Young Gates, 'Lucy Bigelow Young,' n.d., Utah State Historical Society; Gates, 'Recollections,' 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: 1830
Died: 1905
Died at: St. George or Salt Lake City - not established
Outlived Brigham Young?: Yes
Marriage or sealing: 20 Mar 1847
Her age at the marriage: 17
His age at the marriage: 46
Age gap: 29 years
Phase of his life: Crossing the plains
Type of sealing: Time & eternity ?
Already married to another man?: No ?
Her other husbands: -
Widow of Joseph Smith?: No
Sexual relationship?: Yes - children
Children by Brigham Young: 3
Lived with him?: Yes - household; later St. George
Divorce or separation: None recorded
Named in his will?: Yes
Sealed to him as an adopted daughter first?: No ?
Kin tie to him or another wife: Sister of Mary Jane Bigelow (#43)
Left the church?: Remained LDS (documented)
Remarried after Brigham Young?: No
Her later husband(s): None recorded

Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1; Quinn App. 6 ('3 ch, in will')

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.