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. 40 on Johnson's list — but this page is hers
Nancy Cressy
1780–1872
Sealed to Brigham Young 6 Feb 1846 — she was 66, 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
BORN IN 1780 - she was SIXTY-FIVE OR SIXTY-SIX at the sealing, and the oldest woman by birth year that Brigham ever married apart from Phebe Morton. She was twenty-one years OLDER than her husband. Sealed on the final working day of the Nauvoo temple. She lived another twenty-six years, dying in 1872. If anyone asks what these last sealings were for, she is the answer: they were not marriages in any sense a modern listener would recognise.
Key dates
- 1846 Sealed to him 6 Feb 1846 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
- 1872 Died 1872
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. Register entries only.
'Nauvoo Sealings and Adoptions,' p. 559, GS; 'Index to Nauvoo Endowments,' GS
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
- 1780
- Died
- 1872
- Died at
- Not established here
- Outlived Brigham Young?
- No - died before him
- Marriage or sealing
- 6 Feb 1846
- Her age at the marriage
- 66
- His age at the marriage
- 45
- Age gap
- -21 years
- Phase of his life
- Nauvoo temple (Jan-Feb 1846)
- Type of sealing
- Not recorded ?
- Already married to another man?
- Unknown - prior husband's status not established ?
- Her other husbands
- (1) Mr. Walker
- Widow of Joseph Smith?
- No
- Sexual relationship?
- Unlikely - almost certainly not
- 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
- None recorded
- Left the church?
- Not documented here
- Remarried after Brigham Young?
- Not established here
- Her later husband(s)
- None recorded
Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1; Brown, Nauvoo Sealings (register cross-ref)
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.