Did Joseph Smith send men on missions in order to steal their wives?

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Did Joseph Smith send men on missions in order to "steal" their wives?

Summary: Beginning with LDS dissident John C. Bennett, some have charged that Joseph would send men on missions in order to marry their wives. Does this claim match the historical evidence?

Jump to details:

• Question: Did Joseph Smith send men on missions in order to "steal" their wives while they were gone?
• Question: Did Joseph Smith send William Law, Robert D. Foster, and Henry Jacobs on missions so that he could steal their wives?
• Question: Was Apostle Orson Hyde sent on a mission to dedicate Israel so that Joseph Smith could secretly marry his wife, Marinda Hyde, while he was away?

Question: Did Joseph Smith send men on missions in order to "steal" their wives while they were gone?

Jump to details:

• Question: Did Joseph Smith send men on missions in order to "steal" their wives while they were gone?
• This claim is contradicted by historical data: ten of the husbands of the twelve "polyandrous" wives were not on missions at the time and there is insufficient or contradictory information about the other two
• The only question regards Orson Hyde, who had been on his mission for one year to two years before the sealing
• Hyde's wife Marinda was sealed to Orson following Joseph's death

Question: Did Joseph Smith send William Law, Robert D. Foster, and Henry Jacobs on missions so that he could steal their wives?

Jump to details:

• Question: Did Joseph Smith send William Law, Robert D. Foster, and Henry Jacobs on missions so that he could steal their wives?
• This claim was made in an anti-Mormon expose entitled Fifteen Years Among the Mormons
• The book claimed that Law, Foster and Jacobs were returned from missions to find their wives "blushing under the prospective honors of spiritual wifeism"
• Law and Foster never served missions, and Jacobs was not on a mission when Joseph proposed a sealing to his wife

Question: Was Apostle Orson Hyde sent on a mission to dedicate Israel so that Joseph Smith could secretly marry his wife, Marinda Hyde, while he was away?

Jump to details:

• Question: Was Apostle Orson Hyde sent on a mission to dedicate Israel so that Joseph Smith could secretly marry his wife, Marinda Hyde, while he was away?
• Orson was involved briefly with apostasy at Far West in the fall of 1838, but had returned to the Church by March 1839
• If the earlier sealing date is correct, Orson had been on his mission for about a year before the sealing
• The Hydes divorced in 1870, but Marinda was sealed to Orson following Joseph's death
• Marinda's children Orson W. Hyde and Frank Henry Hyde

Joseph's polyandrous marriages

Summary: Nothing in plural marriage mystifies—or troubles—members of the Church more than Joseph's polyandrous sealings. Marriage to multiple wives may seem strange, but at least it intrudes on our historical awareness, while many remain unaware of polyandry's existence in LDS history. But, most critical accounts do not provide all the facts. When we understand what these marriages consisted of—and what they did not consist of—they are much less strange.

See also Brian Hales' discussion

Joseph Smith and Polyandry: Common questions

To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, [[../CriticalSources|click here]]

Notes