What Authority was Used to Perform the Joseph Smith- Fanny Alger Plural Marriage?

One question related to the ceremony performed by Levi Hancock, as described by Mosiah Hancock, is the authority by which he acted. Obviously civil law would not ratify a bigamous marriage. Nor would the sealing keys be restored until April 1836 (D&C 110:13–16). Therefore, Levi was not acting with the authority by which plural marriages were later sealed in Nauvoo, even though “sealed” is the term used by Eliza Jane Churchill Webb.[1]

“Sealing” in Ohio seems to have been used only in “sealing up to everlasting life.” Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner wrote in 1902: “I was sealed to Joseph Smith, the Prophet by commandment. In the spring of 1831, the Savior appeared and commanded him to seal me up to everlasting life.”[2] When Joseph performed marriages, as with the Newell Knight – Lydia Goldthwaite Bailey wedding in Kirtland in 1835, he reportedly claimed “the authority of the holy Priesthood” clarifying that “the Gentile law has no power to call me to an account for it.”[3] If Mosiah Hancock’s description is accurate, most likely “priesthood authority” was invoked to perform a ceremony that “gentile law” would not allow.[4]

[1]Eliza Jane Churchill Webb, Letter to Mary Bond, April 24, 1876.

[2]Lightner, “Statement signed February 8, 1902.”

[3]“Sketch of the Life of Newel Knight,” typescript, Ms 767, fd. 3, LDS Church History Library, (manuscript). Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, 88, 326 note 32, identifies this manuscript as a first draft. That designation does not appear on the document, but it is the shortest of several in the collection. Lydia Knight quoted Joseph as saying: “Our Elders have been wronged and prosecuted for marrying without a license. The Lord God of Israel has given me authority to unite the people in the holy bonds of matrimony. And from this time forth I shall use that privilege and marry whomsoever I see fit. And the enemies of the Church shall never have power to use the law against me.” See also Homespun (pseud. of Emmeline B. Wells), Lydia Knight’s History: The First Book of the Noble Women’s Lives Series (Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1883), 31.

[4] There was a belief in Nauvoo that all eternal sealing ceremonies performed outside of a temple, whether monogamous or polygamous, would need to be repeated within temple walls (with the same individuals or by proxy) at some point. By this logic, the Joseph Smith – Fanny Alger plural marriage would also have needed to be re-performed within a temple in order to have become an eternal marriage.