How many underage wives did Joseph Smith have?

Answer 1

At one time during the early years of the church there were many widows that needed to be taken care of. For this reason, and a few others, the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith that he and other men in the church should take more then one wife. So yes, Joseph did have more then one wife. We don't know how many because of the reason listed above--since so many of the marriages were political contracts with older widows to allow them to keep their property, to assure that he would pay their mortgages, etc., it is assumed that there were many polygamous relationships that were not only non-sexual, but where the two may have never met one another. The church hasn't practiced polygamy since 1890.

The answer above gives an apologetic view to Mormon Polygamy and in some areas not 100% accurate. There is no historical evidence for the amount of widows compared to men in the Church in the early 19th Century. That argument is not accepted by historians and holds no water. The reason for the revelation calling Joseph Smith to live "the Principle," as it is called among some Fundamentalist groups, or Polygamy is contained in the revelation itself. He received the revelation because he was inquiring of the Lord concerning David, Solomon and Abraham's practice of plural wives. Historian Todd Compton in his book "In Sacred Loneliness" provides ample evidence that Joseph Smith had at least 28 plural wives and possible up to about 32 maximum. So, to answer your question, yes, Joseph Smith did have more than one wife. The argument above that Joseph Smith was married to them only to help them financially also holds no water, he was steeped deeply in debt and could not have rendered much, if any, financial support for those women. Joseph Smith did meet his wives and there are arguments for sexual relations between the two. However, the sexual relations must have been few and rare because in that time period there were no serious contraceptives and if Smith were running around with nearly 30 women on a regular basis there would be nearly dozens of documented and plausible illegitimate children. The thing is there are none. No one has found evidence supporting that any one person was an illegitimate child of Joseph Smith through any of his wives other than Emma Hale Smith. There are possibly 3 cases that could argue to be Smith's illegitimate children however none are accepted by scholars as plausible, let alone true. While many Latter-day Saints would like to think that all polygamy ended in 1890 there were many Members who did not accept the Manifest from President Wilford Woodruff and continued to perform and engage in Polygamous marriages. This is why we see so many fundamentalist Mormon sects today like the one Warren Jeffs once lead.

There are two camps to this question; (1) Brother Joseph was only married to Emma, and (2) Brother Joseph had between 40 to 80 other wives. From my high level of scholarly research, I have found not one single shred of credible historical evidence that Brother Joseph had more than one wife. While it is "cool" to say that he did, a rigorous academic investigation will show that claims that he had more than one wife hold no historical weight.

Answer 2

How many wives Joseph Smith had is extremely speculative, as he rarely spoke of other wives. There is very little documentation of the marriages and even less of what occurred after the marriages. It is known for certain that he only lived with and had children with his first wife, Emma Hale Smith. She is the only wife he claimed publicly and the only one he was legally married to. Other wives may have included:

Fanny Alger

Lucinda Pendleton Morgan Harris

Louisa Beaman

Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs

Presendia Lathrop Huntington Buell

Agnes Moulton Coolbrith

Sylvia Porter Sessions Lyon

Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner

Patty Bartlett Sessions

Marinda Nancy Johnson Hyde

Elizabeth Davis Brackenbury Durfee

Sally A. Fuller

Sarah Maryetta Kingsley Howe Cleveland

Delcena Johnson Sherman

Eliza Roxcy Snow (she herself denied that Joseph Smith was a polygamist...)

Sarah Ann Whitney

Martha McBride Knight

Sarah Bapson

Ruth D. Vose Sayers

Flor Ann Woodworth

Emily Dow Partridge

Eliza Maria Partridge Lyman

Almera Woodward Johnson

Lucy Walker

Sarah Lawrence

Maria Lawrence Young

Helen Mar Kimball Whitney

Hannah Ells

Elvira Annie Cowles Holmes

Rhoda Richards Young

Desdemona Fullmer

Olive Grey Frost Young

Mary Ann Frost Pratt

Melissa Lott

Nancy Mariah Winchester

Fanny Young Murray

Mary Houston

Sarah Scott

Olive Andrews

Jane Tippets

Sophia Sanburn

Pheobe Watrous Woodworth

Vienna Jaques

The majority of the women in this list were simply 'sealed' to Joseph Smith. They did not live a marriage lifestyle with him, and the women were free to marry other men as they saw fit. They saw the sealing as meaning that they would be guaranteed a spot in the Celestial Kingdom, not that they were the wife of Joseph Smith. This is supported by evidence that many more women were sealed to Joseph Smith after his death, and that many of these women were civilly married to other men at the time of their sealing to Joseph. Several of the women listed here denied that Smith was a polygamist at all, although they were aware that they were sealed to him. This is even further proof that they did not see the sealing as a 'marriage'.

Answer 3

Technically, none, as there were no laws about acceptable marriage age at the time, so there was no such thing as an 'underage' wife.

Joseph Smith only publicly claimed one wife, and only had children with that one wife, Emma Hale. They were married when he was 21 and she was 22.

Other women claimed to be 'sealed' to Joseph (and many have credible witnesses), but at that time, being 'sealed' was not considered being married. It was essentially viewed as an ordinance that allowed the woman to enter the highest realms of heaven. It was considered an honor by many to be 'sealed' to the prophet, because it meant that they would be with the prophet, Jesus, and God the Father in heaven for eternity.

Joseph Smith never claimed that any of these relationships were a 'marriage', and many of the women even denied that they were married to him. There is no evidence that he ever had a sexual relationship with any of these women. Some of the women claimed to have children by him, but these claims have been proven false with modern DNA testing.

Here are their names, as well as their ages and his age at the time of the marriage.

Fanny Alger (she was 16, he was 28)

Lucinda Pendleton Morgan Harris (she was 37, he was 33)

Louisa Beaman (she was 26, he was 35)

Zina Diantha Huntington (she was 20, he was 35)

Presendia Lathrop Huntington (she was 31, he was 35)

Agnes Moulton Coolbrith (she was 31, he was 36)

Sylvia Porter Sessions Lyon (she was 23, he was 36)

Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner (she was 23, he was 36)

Patty Bartlett (she was 47, he was 36)

Marinda Nancy Johnson (she was 27, he was 36)

Elizabeth Davis (she was 50, he was 36)

Sarah Maryetta Kingsley (she was 53, he was 36)

Delcena Johnson (she was 37, he was 36)

Eliza Roxcy Snow (she was 38, he was 36)

Sarah Ann Whitney (she was 17, he was 36)

Martha McBride (she was 37, he was 36)

Ruth D. Vose (she was 34, he was 37)

Flora Ann Woodworth (she was 16, he was 37)

Emily Dow Partridge (she was 19, he was 37)

Eliza Maria Partridge (she was 22, he was 37)

Almera Woodward Johnson (she was 30 he was 37)

Lucy Walker (she was 17, he was 37)

Sarah Lawrence (she was 17, he was 37)

Maria Lawrence (she was 19, he was 37)

Helen Mar Kimball (she was 14, he was 37)

Hannah Ells (she was 29, he was 37)

Elvira Annie Cowles (she ws 29, he was 37)

Rhoda Richards (she was 58, he was 37)

Desdemona Fullmer (she was 32, he was 37)

Olive Grey Frost (she was 27, he was 37)

Mary Ann Frost (she was 34, he was 37)

Melissa Lott (she was 19, he was 37)

Nancy Mariah Winchester (she was 14, he was 37)

Fanny Young (she was 56, he was 37)

There are a handful of other names, but the dates and evidence of marriage are too questionable to be considered here.

Answer 4

There is very little historical information about Joseph Smith and polygamy, but it is generally accepted by all but the Community of Christ (also called RLDS) that he was a polygamist. We do not know if he lived with these women or had a sexual relationship with them, or if their marriage was for heaven only. He did not have children with other women, but we do know that he had other wives because the other women wrote about it and there are some church records of their sealing. He probably had between 30-40 wives.

Answer 5

We do not know how many wives Joseph Smith had, but certainly he had quite a few, but only Smith's first marriage was legally recorded by any civil authority, with the remainder being religious unions only. His known wives are listed by Wikipedia, including two (Helen Mar Kimball, Nancy Mariah Winchester) who were only 14 years old at the time they married.

In 1852, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) acknowledged that Smith had practised plural marriage and produced a written revelation to Smith that purportedly authorised the practice.

Answer 6

Joseph Smith had 11 children, all with his wife Emma Hale. However, at least 5 of them died at birth. They also adopted a set of twins, one of which died in childhood.

Answer 7

One, Emma Smith.