Lucy Harris

Lucy Harris (née Harris) (1792–1836) was the wife of Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates.

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 (Quakers). Lucy married Martin Harris on March 27, 1808, in Palmyra, New York. She had become partially deaf by the year 1827. She separated from her husband in June 1830, and died in Palmyra in 1836.

Early on during the translation of the Book of Mormon Lucy became frustrated with Martin (and skeptical of Joseph Smith) because of how much her husband 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.

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 (and despite Smith saying he was warned not to by the Lord) 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.

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