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. 17 on Johnson's list — but this page is hers

Mary Ann Clark

1816–?

Sealed to Brigham Young 15 Jan 1845 — she was 29, he was 44.

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

Nauvoo, after the martyrdom

Who she was, and what happened

Sealed to Brigham while apparently continuing to live with her non-Mormon first husband, who later left her. Her exit is one of the few in Brigham's own words, because she put it in writing from Kanesville, Iowa, on 18 June 1851: 'I wish you to release me from all engagements with you for time and eternity....' The request was granted. During the 1846 exodus she was one of four plural wives hiding out in Nathaniel Ashby's Nauvoo home.

Key dates

  1. 1845 Sealed to him 15 Jan 1845 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
  2. no date Temple sealing confirmed Confirmed in the Nauvoo temple, Jan-Feb 1846. Documented, but Johnson gives no date
  3. 1851 Divorce or separation 18 June 1851 (request granted)

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.

HER OWN LETTER asking for release, 18 June 1851, in the Brigham Young papers. Nothing else.

Brigham Young papers; Johnson p. 63

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
1816
Died
?
Died at
Not established here
Outlived Brigham Young?
Unknown - no death year recorded
Marriage or sealing
15 Jan 1845
Her age at the marriage
29
His age at the marriage
44
Age gap
15 years
Phase of his life
Post-martyrdom, pre-temple
Type of sealing
Not recorded ?
Already married to another man?
Yes (Turner n. 56) ?
Her other husbands
(1) Mr. Powers
Widow of Joseph Smith?
No
Sexual relationship?
Not documented here
Children by Brigham Young
0
Lived with him?
No - apparently kept living with her first husband
Divorce or separation
Requested release 18 June 1851; granted
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?
Not documented - left BY, church status unknown
Remarried after Brigham Young?
Not established here
Her later husband(s)
None recorded

Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1 n. 17 and p. 65; Compton, JMH 25:2; Turner p. 193

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.