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{{Resource Title|Joseph's management of the Lawrence sister's estate}} | {{Resource Title|Joseph's management of the Lawrence sister's estate}} | ||
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Critics charge that Joseph Smith mismanaged the estate of two orphans, Maria and Sarah Lawrence. They point out that Joseph also married these sisters polygamously, and charge that he also used the marriage to enrich himself. | Critics charge that Joseph Smith mismanaged the estate of two orphans, Maria and Sarah Lawrence. They point out that Joseph also married these sisters polygamously, and charge that he also used the marriage to enrich himself. | ||
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The critics give an account by a bitter apostate—offered nearly forty-three years after the fact—exclusive precedence over contemporary court documents, which demonstrate that the courts found that Joseph's conduct had been appropriate. | The critics give an account by a bitter apostate—offered nearly forty-three years after the fact—exclusive precedence over contemporary court documents, which demonstrate that the courts found that Joseph's conduct had been appropriate. | ||
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#{{note|fn225}}FAIR thanks to Gordon A. Madsen, who was gracious enough to review GL Smith's draft of the Lawrence material. He also provided GL Smith with the information in this paragraph. Any mistakes or misapprehensions remain ours, and he is not responsible for these conclusions. Madsen’s manuscript on the Lawrence estate is currently (as of Dec 2008) in preparation for publication. | #{{note|fn225}}FAIR thanks to Gordon A. Madsen, who was gracious enough to review GL Smith's draft of the Lawrence material. He also provided GL Smith with the information in this paragraph. Any mistakes or misapprehensions remain ours, and he is not responsible for these conclusions. Madsen’s manuscript on the Lawrence estate is currently (as of Dec 2008) in preparation for publication. | ||
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[[fr:Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Mismanagement of the Lawrence estate]] | [[fr:Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Mismanagement of the Lawrence estate]] |
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Critics charge that Joseph Smith mismanaged the estate of two orphans, Maria and Sarah Lawrence. They point out that Joseph also married these sisters polygamously, and charge that he also used the marriage to enrich himself.
Note: This wiki section was based partly on a review of G.D. Smith's Nauvoo Polygamy. As such, it focuses on that author's presentation of the data. To read the full review, follow the link. Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)
To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, [[../CriticalSources|click here]]
The critics give an account by a bitter apostate—offered nearly forty-three years after the fact—exclusive precedence over contemporary court documents, which demonstrate that the courts found that Joseph's conduct had been appropriate.
G.D. Smith reports that William Law charged Joseph with
By accepting Law’s account, G. D. Smith commits many of the same errors present in Todd Compton’s In Sacred Loneliness. However, even before the publication of Compton’s book, Gordon A. Madsen had presented data showing the falsity of Law’s charges. Compton has the excuse that Madsen’s material was unpublished when his book went to press and only available from a presentation made at the Mormon History Association in 1996. More than a decade later, G. D. Smith makes the same errors, though with no hint of the exculpatory evidence available from the primary documents.[1] He even cites Madsen’s materials but tells the reader nothing about their contents.[2]
G. D. Smith has apparently not paid attention to what the FARMS Review reported on this topic either, since
But rather than respond to this material or describe Madsen’s conclusions, G. D. Smith merely follows the hostile William Law. Madsen further informed me that there was never any “cash” in the estate delivered to Joseph, and certainly not the “$8,000.00 in English gold” that Law would later claim.[4]
The bulk of the estate was in promissory notes owed by fellow Canadians to the Lawrences. Law was well aware of this since he and his brother Wilson were hired by Joseph to collect some of these debts. Joseph’s accounts provided the probate court list payment to “W. & W. Law” in such cases. At one point, Joseph “sent William Clayton to Wilson Law to find out why he refused paying his note, when he brought in some claims as a set-off which Clayton knew were paid, leaving me no remedy but the glorious uncertainty of the law.”[5] It is not clear whether this was Law’s own note or one owed to the Lawrences. Certainly the estate was never liquid, and it is likely that not all of the notes had been collected before Joseph’s death.[6]
To portray Joseph as “us[ing] celestial marriage as a means to access . . . [a] fortune” (p. 439) is to ignore virtually all the primary sources.
== Notes ==
FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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