Margaret Alley

1825–1852

Sealed to Brigham Young 14 Jan 1846 — she was 21, 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

ONE OF ONLY TWO. Johnson is explicit about the Nauvoo temple wave: 'Of this group, only two, Margaret Alley and Zina Huntington, bore him children.' Nineteen sealings in five weeks and two reproductive marriages. Margaret bore him two sons and died young, in 1852, at about 27. CORRECTION LOGGED: an earlier draft of this file called her the only one - that was wrong, and Zina Huntington (#33) is the other.

Key dates

1846 Sealed to him 14 Jan 1846 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
1852 Died c. 6 Nov 1852

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 known. Ordinance record and one Historian's Office entry.

Historian's Office Journal, 6 Nov 1852

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: 1825
Died: c. 6 Nov 1852
Died at: Salt Lake City
Outlived Brigham Young?: No - died before him
Marriage or sealing: 14 Jan 1846
Her age at the marriage: 21
His age at the marriage: 45
Age gap: 24 years
Phase of his life: Nauvoo temple (Jan-Feb 1846)
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: 2
Lived with him?: Yes - household
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: None recorded
Left the church?: Remained LDS (documented)
Remarried after Brigham Young?: No - died 1852
Her later husband(s): None recorded

Source and confidence: Johnson p. 61 ('only two, Margaret Alley and Zina Huntington') and Table 1 n. 22; Turner p. 134

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.