Lucy Harris


Lucy Harris was the wife of Martin Harris, and an early skeptic of the translation of the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates.

Biography

Early Life
Lucy Harris was born on May 1, 1792 at Smithfield, Providence, Rhode Island. She was the daughter of Rufus Harris and Lucy Hill, who were affiliated with but not members of the Religious Society of Friends. She married Martin Harris on March 27, 1808, in Palmyra, New York. She had become partially deaf by the year 1827.
Harris and the Book of Mormon
Early on during the translation of the Book of Mormon Harris became frustrated with her husband, Martin, because of how much he was helping Smith with the translation of the Book of Mormon. She questioned Joseph Smith personally about the plates and demanded to see them. He told her, "he was not permitted to exhibit them to any one except those whom the Lord should appoint to testify of them." This did not resolve her concern and she persisted in demanding to see the plates. It has been suggested that she may have been enthusiastic about the translation of the plates, but "her unrelenting determination to see them transformed her enthusiasm into resentment."
In order to convince Lucy that they were translating an ancient book of scripture, Martin Harris asked Joseph Smith to instead let him borrow the first 116 pages of the translation of the Book of Mormon. Smith said that these pages of the translation of the Book of Mormon were a translation from the Book of Lehi. At Harris' insistence Smith reluctantly loaned the pages to Harris. The manuscript was subsequently lost, and a variety of theories as to its disappearance have arisen. Some Mormons believe that Lucy hid them from Joseph Smith after they had been altered, or that they were given to friends, otherwise disposed of in some way, or that they were stolen from the Harris's house.
When Harris approached Smith and told him what happened, Smith became angry with himself for not heeding "the Lord's admonition" not to loan the manuscript to Harris and left to go and pray. Subsequently, Joseph lost the ability to translate "for a season" while he went through "the repentance process." Ultimately he claimed to receive a revelation wherein he was instructed not to retranslate the portion of the Golden Plates the 116 pages were taken from "because wicked men had stolen the pages and altered them, hoping to discredit Joseph when he translated them again and the two manuscripts didn’t match because of their alterations." Instead, the material would be replaced with Nephi's Abridgment of his father's record. However, according to Lucy Mack Smith, Lucy Harris did give Joseph 28 dollars to go towards the translation and publication of the plates, claiming that she had received a vision testifying of their truth, as well as being shown the physical plates.
Later Life
In part due to the continued disagreement with her husband over the legitimacy of Joseph Smith and the golden plates, and because of the loss of his farm, which he had mortgaged to publish the Book of Mormon, in 1830 Harris and her husband separated. Lucy Harris was described by her detractors Lucy Mack Smith as a woman of "irascible temper," but Harris may also have abused her. Lucy Harris also suggested that her husband may have committed adultery with a neighboring "Mrs. Haggart." She died in 1836 just six years after her separation from Martin. She was 44 at the time of her death.

Allegations by the Smith family

According to the journal of Joseph Smith’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith, Mrs. Harris expressed once that she "missed her husband," but after Mrs. Smith informed Mrs. Harris that he left to accompany Joseph Smith and to take the Egyptian characters to the East to "call on all the professed linguists... in giving a translation of the characters," Mrs. Harris "became highly exasperated, and charged me with planning the whole affair." After contending briefly with Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Smith reported, "'Now, stop' said I, 'do you know that we have never asked you for money or property? and that if we had been disposed to take advantage of your liberality, could we not have obtained at least, two hundred and seventy dollars of your cash?' She answered in the affirmative, notwithstanding she went home in a great rage, determined to have satisfaction for the treatment which she had received. In a short time Mr. Harris returned, and his wife's anger kindled afresh at his presence, insomuch that she prepared a separate bed and room for him, which room she refused to enter."
In a later report by Mrs. Smith, she described Mrs. Harris's reaction upon her discovery of damage to a chest of drawers, a consequence of Martin's decision to pick the lock to show the manuscript pages to a friend: "When Mrs. Harris returned, and discovered the marred state of her , her irascible temper was excited to the utmost pitch, and an intolerable storm ensued, which descended with the greatest violence upon the devoted head of her husband."

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