Phebe Morton

1776–1854

Sealed to Brigham Young 28 Jan 1846 — she was 70, 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

HIS OTHER MOTHER-IN-LAW, and at 69 or 70 the OLDEST woman he ever married - this is the '66' in Turner's line that his wives ranged in age 'from sixteen to sixty-six' (she was older still by Johnson's birth year of 1776). Long estranged from her husband James Angell, who was still living. Sealed on the same day as Abigail Marks and as her own daughter's sister Jemima. Three women from the two families he had married into, all sealed to him in a single afternoon.

Key dates

1846 Sealed to him 28 Jan 1846 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
1854 Died 16 Nov 1854

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 of her own. She appears in her SON Truman Angell's autobiography, and in a 1910 newspaper story about identifying her remains.

Truman O. Angell, Autobiography, holograph; 'Bones Identified as Mother Angell's,' Salt Lake Tribune, 26 April 1910

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: 1776
Died: 16 Nov 1854
Died at: Salt Lake City
Outlived Brigham Young?: No - died before him
Marriage or sealing: 28 Jan 1846
Her age at the marriage: 70
His age at the marriage: 45
Age gap: -25 years
Phase of his life: Nauvoo temple (Jan-Feb 1846)
Type of sealing: Time & eternity ?
Already married to another man?: Yes (Turner n. 56) ?
Her other husbands: (1) James W. Angell
Widow of Joseph Smith?: No
Sexual relationship?: Unlikely - almost certainly not
Children by Brigham Young: 0
Lived with him?: No
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: MOTHER of first wife Mary Ann Angell (#2)
Left the church?: Not documented here
Remarried after Brigham Young?: No
Her later husband(s): None recorded

Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1; Turner p. 134 and n. 56

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. The size of that gap is the argument for the book.