Sarah Pratt

Did he ever at such times or at any other time or place make improper overtures to you, or proposals of an improper nature—begging your pardon for the apparent indelicacy of this question? To this Mrs. Pratt replied, quietly but firmly, "No, Joseph; your father never said an improper word to me in his life. He knew better." Sister Pratt, it has been frequently told that he behaved improperly in your presence, and I have been told that I dare not come to you and ask you about your relations with him, for fear you would tell me things which would be unwelcome to me. "You need have no such fear," she repeated. "Your father was never guilty of an action or proposal of an improper nature in my house, towards me, or in my presence, at any time or place. There is no truth in the reports that have been circulated about him in this regard. He was always the Christian gentleman, and a noble man.

Sarah Pratt was born in 1966 in France.

By 1886 Sarah Pratt was willing to go on the record regarding the seduction allegations. In 1886 Wilhelm Ritter Von Wymetal (as Wilhelm Wyl) published the anti-Mormon volume Mormon Portraits. In her 1886 interview with W. Wyl, Sarah Pratt alleged that Joseph Smith engaged Bennett, a medical doctor, to perform abortions on Smith's plural wives who were otherwise unmarried. Bennett biographer, Andrew Smith, agrees that it "was likely true" that Bennett performed abortions. At the time of the 1842 controversy, Zeruiah Goddard had claimed Bennett told Sarah Pratt "that he could cause abortion with perfect safety to the mother at any stage of pregnancy, and that he had frequently destroyed and removed infants before their time to prevent exposure of the parties, and that he had instruments for that purpose."

In 1878 Sarah was a strong supporter of the Anti-Polygamy Society and styled herself as a Mormon apostate. Sarah's surviving children rejected the LDS Church.

In 1874 Pratt testified on behalf of the Liberal candidate running for the position of Utah Territorial Representative to Congress, Robert Baskin. Baskin had accused his opponent, Apostle George Q. Cannon, of polygamy and said that Cannon's obligation to the Mormon hierarchy was greater than his loyalty to national law.

In 1868 Orson married his tenth wife, English-born Margaret Graham. Orson was 57. Graham was 16.

In 1858 Sarah Pratt's former teenage neighbor, Mary Etta Coray Henderson Smith (aka Mary Ettie V. Smith), wrote that in 1841 Sarah "occupied a house owned by John C. Bennett. ... Prophet Joseph, who called upon her one day, ... alleged he found John C. Bennett in bed with her. As we lived but across the street from her house we saw and heard the whole uproar.". It is unclear how Mary Etta's assertion affected Pratt.

In the summer of 1842, Dr. John C. Bennet was excommunicated for seducing several women into adultery. While Sarah Pratt's husband was on a mission in England, it was rumored that Sarah had an affair with John C. Bennet. When Bennett's exploits were uncovered, he devoted considerable effort to attribute his own sexual improprieties with Sarah, and other women, to Joseph. Bennet claimed that Joseph approached Sarah while Orson was on a mission and solicited her to be one of his "spiritual wives." To counteract these allegations, Joseph Smith compiled a pamphlet of affidavits, certificates, and letters which proved his innocence and Bennett's guilt concerning sexual misconduct. This included affidavits produced by non-Mormon Sheriff Jacob B. Backenstoes and Sarah's erstwhile landlords, Stephen Goddard and Zeruiah Goddard. At the time, Sarah maintained a public silence regarding the matter. Nancy Rigdon and Pamelia Michael rejected Bennett's accusations involving them. Meanwhile, Martha Brotherton produced a damning affidavit involving Joseph Smith at Bennett's request.

The move to Missouri was difficult due to Sarah's pregnancy with their second child. They reached St. Louis and their daughter Lydia was born on December 17, 1838. Violence in Missouri led to the expulsion of the Mormons from that state, and the Pratts were forced to flee to the upriver settlements on the Mississippi. They eventually found a "shanty" in nascent Nauvoo, Illinois. There, baby Lydia fell ill with one of the epidemics that ravaged the swamplands and died in August 1839. Orson left eleven days later to serve a mission to Europe.

The Pratts' stay in Kirtland would be short-lived. Amidst the economic difficulties of 1837 and the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society, Sarah gave birth to their first son Orson Jr. With few financial prospects in Kirtland, the family moved back to Henderson as soon as the infant was capable of the journey, and several months later relocated to New York City. In July 1838, Orson Pratt was called to gather with a number of other church elders at Far West, Missouri to prepare for another mission.

Sarah Marinda Bates lived in Henderson, New York from the time of her birth in 1817 until October 1836. While she was there, her family encountered Mormon missionaries and in the summer of 1835 she and several siblings were baptized into the faith. She also fell in love with one of the missionaries, Orson Pratt, who after continuing to preach in other areas returned to seek Sarah's hand in marriage. They were wed July 4, 1836, and Orson returned to his missionary travels after a three-day honeymoon. Sarah stayed with her family with only periodic visits from her husband until the couple moved in October to an apartment in Kirtland, Ohio.

Sarah Marinda Bates Pratt (February 2, 1817 – December 25, 1888) was the first wife of LDS Apostle and polygamist Orson Pratt and later a critic of Mormon polygamy. She was a founder of the Anti-Polygamy Society in Salt Lake City and called herself a Mormon apostate. She was born in Henderson, Jefferson County, New York, the first daughter and third child of Cyrus Bates and Lydia Harrington Bates.