Rhoda Richards

1784–1879

Sealed to Brigham Young 31 Jan 1846 — she was 62, 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

SIXTY-ONE at the sealing, and she left one of the most quoted explanations any plural wife ever gave: 'In my young days I buried my first and only love, and true to that affiance, I have passed companionless through life: but am sure of having my proper place and standing in the resurrection, having been sealed to the prophet Joseph, according to the celestial law.' She had been sealed to Joseph in 1843 at 59. Sister of Apostle Willard Richards and Brigham's own first cousin. She kept diaries into her nineties, recording visits to Lucy Decker, Zina and Ellen Rockwood at the Lion House - a wife who moved through the household as a relative rather than a spouse.

Key dates

1846 Sealed to him 31 Jan 1846 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
1879 Died 17 Jan 1879

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.

DIARIES kept into her nineties, plus a published sketch in Tullidge and a chapter in Compton.

Tullidge, Women of Mormondom (1877), pp. 421-22; Compton ch. 25; Sunstone 111

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: 1784
Died: 17 Jan 1879
Died at: Salt Lake City
Outlived Brigham Young?: Yes
Marriage or sealing: 31 Jan 1846
Her age at the marriage: 62
His age at the marriage: 45
Age gap: -17 years
Phase of his life: Nauvoo temple (Jan-Feb 1846)
Type of sealing: To Joseph for eternity, to BY for time ?
Already married to another man?: No ?
Her other husbands: (1) Joseph Smith
Widow of Joseph Smith?: Yes
Sexual relationship?: Unlikely - never a marital household
Children by Brigham Young: 0
Lived with him?: No - lived independently, visited the Lion House
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 Apostle Willard Richards; BY's first cousin
Left the church?: Remained LDS (documented)
Remarried after Brigham Young?: No
Her later husband(s): None recorded

Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1; Compton ch. 25; Sunstone 111

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.