Martha (Patty) Bartlett Sessions Parry

4 February 1795 — 14 December 1892

1 Born at Newry, York County, Maine; daughter of Martha Anna Hall and Enoch Bartlett. 2 Married David Sessions, 1812; eight children. 3 Baptized in Maine, 1834. 4 Moved to Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri, 1836, and to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, by 1840. 5 Later identified herself as a plural wife of Joseph Smith, married on March 9, 1842. 6 Joined the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo at its second meeting, March 24, 1842. 7 Migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, 1847. 8 Settled at Salt Lake City. 9 Widowed, 1850. 10 Married John Parry, 1851; widowed, 1868. 11 Moved to Bountiful, Davis County, Utah Territory, 1872. 12 Delivered thousands of babies as a midwife. 13 Died at Bountiful. 14 (See Document 1.2, first mentioned here)

Footnotes

  1. [1] Patriarchal Blessing Index, 1833–2011, vol. 10, no. 463, Patty Sessions (Feb. 18, 1848), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, CHL. “Deaths,” Deseret Weekly, Dec. 24, 1892, p. 32.

  2. [2] Newry, Oxford Co., ME, Town and Vital Records, 1805–1891, Town Records, 1805–1846, microfilm 11,589, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL. Patriarchal blessings, 1848, Patty Sessions. “Patty Sessions,” Woman’s Exponent 13, no. 7 (Sept. 1, 1884): 51. Donna Toland Smart, ed., Mormon Midwife: The 1846–1888 Diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1997), 2–3. William B. Lapham, History of the Town of Bethel, Maine (Augusta, ME: Press of the Maine Farmer, 1891; repr. Somersworth, NH: New England History Press/Bethel Historical Society, 1981), 467.

  3. [3] “Patty Sessions,” 51. Lapham, History of the Town of Bethel, 467. Donna Toland Smart, “‘Hands in Skillful Labours Taught’: Patty Bartlett Sessions (1795–1892),” in Women of Faith in the Latter Days, vol. 1, 1775–1820, ed. Richard E. Turley Jr. and Brittany A. Chapman (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), 300–301. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org, accessed Dec. 2014), Patty Bartlett KWJT-QWJ and David Sessions III MMM9-NSV.

  4. [4] “Patty Sessions,” Woman’s Exponent 13, no. 8 (Sept. 15, 1884): 63.

  5. [5] “An Aged Sister Gone,” Davis County (UT) Clipper, Dec. 22, 1892, [1]. “Patty Sessions,” 63. “Patty Sessions,” Woman’s Exponent 13, no. 11 (Nov. 1, 1884): 86.

  6. [6] Smart, Mormon Midwife, 276. Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997), 179.

  7. [7] Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book, 1841–1846, CHL, entry for Mar. 24, 1842.

  8. [8] “Patty Bartlett Sessions,” Church History Biographical Database, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, available at https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/landing, accessed Jan. 2015.

  9. [9] 1850 U.S. census, Great Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, p. 30B, Patty Sessions; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com, accessed Jan. 2015); from NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 919. 1860 U.S. census, Great Salt Lake Ward 16, Great Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, p. 241, Patty Parry; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com, accessed Jan. 2015); from NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 1313.

  10. [10] “Family Tree,” database, David Sessions III. Smart, “‘Hands in Skillful Labours Taught,” 302.

  11. [11] Smart, “‘Hands in Skillful Labours Taught,” 302. “Family Tree,” database, John Parry KWJC-YR3.

  12. [12] Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, 201. 1880 U.S. census, Bountiful, Davis Co., Utah Territory, p. 277C, Patty Sessions; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com, accessed Jan. 2015); from NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 1336.

  13. [13] Smart, Mormon Midwife, 6–10. Smart, “‘Hands in Skillful Labours Taught,” 301.

  14. [14] “Deaths,” 32.