Emily Dow Partridge was questioned in the Temple Lot Case. In her previous writings, she had been reticent to address the issue of conjugality in her plural marriage with Joseph Smith.1 However, when asked point-blank by the RLDS attorney, she answered frankly:
Q. Had you roomed with him prior to … the night after you were married the last time?
A. No sir, not roomed with him.
Q. Well had you slept with him?
A. Yes sir.
Q. [Had you] slept with him … before the fourth of March 1843 [their marriage date]?
A. No sir. …
Q. Did you ever live with Joseph Smith after you were married to him after that first night that you roomed together?
A. No sir. Emma knew that we were married to him, but she never allowed us to live with him. . . .
Q. Do you make the declaration now that you ever roomed with him at any time?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Do you make the declaration that you ever slept with him in the same bed?
A. Yes sir.
Q. How many nights?
A. One.
Q. Only one night.
A. Yes sir.
Q. Then you only slept with him in the same bed one night?
A. No sir.
Q. Did you ever have carnal intercourse with Joseph Smith?
A. Yes sir.
Q. How many nights?
A. I could not tell you.
Q. Do you make the declaration that you ever slept with him but one night?
A. Yes sir.
Q. And that was the only time and place that you ever were in bed with him?
A. No sir.
Q. Were you in bed with him at any time before . . . you were married?
A. No sir, not before I was married to him. I never was.2
- See Emily D. Partridge Young, “Incidents of the Early Life of Emily Dow Partridge,” written between December 1876 and January 7, 1877; “Written Especially for My Children, January 7, 1877”; Autobiographical Sketch: “Written for family January 7, 1877”; Diary, 1880–93; “Pioneer Day,” 37; “Testimony That Cannot Be Refuted,” 164-65; Autobiography, typescript, April 7, 1884; “A Living Testimony,” 570–71; “Incidents in the Life of a Mormon Girl,” n.d. (back)
- Emily Dow Partridge Young, Deposition, Temple Lot Transcript, Part 3, pp. 371, 384, questions 480–84, 747, 751-62.xx)
In 1903 Benjamin F. Johnson affirmed that either Emily or her sister Eliza had “occupied the Same Room & Bed” as Joseph Smith: “Later the Prophet again Came and at my house occupied the Same Room & Bed with my Sister that the month previous he had occupied with the Daughter of the Late Bishop Partridge as his wife.”((Zimmerman, I Knew the Prophets, 44. (back)