The Mosiah Lyman Hancock connection ...

Of interest is how the lives of Mosiah Lyman Hancock who became the husband many wives and father of many children for a brief moment touched the life of Mary DUNN ENSIGN. That moment in her childhood is perpetuated among the HANCOCK descendants, often with mistaken ages, date and places.

[found on internet]

The ADAMS FAMILY CONNECTION

January 2010

Dear Family; I wondered if any of you would be interested in a time when I received some help in doing genealogy. One time, many years ago, Joyce and I went to the Genealogy Library when it was still in the old Montgomery Ward building in Salt lake City. I remember walking through the isles of books and one binder of group sheets was sticking out too far to walk by comfortably, so I reached up and took it out instead of pushing it back in. It opened to the group sheet of Martin Luther Ensign and it said that his wife, Mary Dunn, had been sealed to Mosiah Lyman Hancock in the Nauvoo Temple on 31 January 1846. We had been wondering what had happened to her. As you can tell from the dates, they were married and sealed before the exodus from Nauvoo. Mosiah and Mary were 14 [Mosish 11 and Mary 12] years old and were instructed to not live together, as husband and wife, until they were 16. Mosiah tells of meeting her once more before they got to the Valley. Mary immigrated to Ogden area and married Martin. [Mary married Martin L. ENSIGN in Salt Lake at age 18 they went together to Ogden for a few months then moved Brigham City were they spent the next 80 years in .] Mosiah didn’t go north, he went south, ending up in Eden, Arizona.

Love and Merry Christmas. Verl and Joyce.

[found on new.familyseach, also parts of this on internet in M. L. Hancock autobiography]

Mosiah Lyman Hancock Journal

" I was sealed to a lovely young girl named Mary, who was about my age, but it was with the understanding that we were not to live together as husband and wife until we were 16 years of age. The reason that some were sealed so young was because we knew that we would have to go West and wait many a long time for another temple."Page 31 Personal Memoirs of Mosiah Lyman Hancock. "While we were at Winter Quarters, Mary Dunn came to our camp and wanted to go with us, but Mother said we could not take her because we had no room. Mary's mother had died and her father had gotten a stepmother for his children. She came with a bundle of clothes to our wagon, and with joy I hailed my noble beautiful wife! But Mary had to go, and oh what sorrow as I saw her depart. We were separated for life." Page 38 Personal Memoirs of Mosiah Lyman Hancock. Mary was later married to Martin Luther Ensign 8 Jan 1852 in Salt Lake City,Salt Lake,Utah,U.S.A., and became a mother to many children.

Nauvoo temple records:
Last Name, First Name / Birth Date / Endowment Date
Hancock, Mosiah / 9 April 1834 / 31 Jan 1846 age 11 and 9 months
Dunn, Mary / 2 Nov 1833 / 31 Jan 1846 age 12 and 2 months

Mary DUNN was never a wife of Mosiah Lyman Hancock, she had been seal as a 12 year old girl to him when he was an 11 year old boy. This was because the Saints would leave the temple when they left Nauvoo. Did children have a say in the matter? Mosiah’s father Levi Hancock had ordained Mary’s father Simeon Adams DUNN so we know that the fathers were acquainted. What I find interesting is the fact Mary DUNN remained in the Hancock family history records. Mary DUNN has been sealed and resealed to Mosiah many times over the years. She made her choice in life when she marry and was sealed 8 Jan 1852 to Martin Luther ENSIGN in the Endowment House at the age of 18 years. Martin and Mary had nine children. Mary died in 1920 at Brigham City she was 87 year of old.