The Evolution of Apostolic Seniority: Timeline of Lds Succession Rules Explained
When Joseph Smith organized the first Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in Kirtland, Ohio, on February 14, 1835, seniority had nothing to do with who arrived first or who performed the most missionary labor. Smith organized the men by biological age. Thomas B. Marsh, born in 1799, became the first President of the Quorum simply because he was older than David W. Patten and Brigham Young.
Age-based rank was simple, but it broke down almost immediately. Apostasies, expulsions, and reorganizations during the Missouri conflicts of 1838, 1839 scrambled the ranks. Marsh left the faith, Patten died in combat at the Battle of Crooked River, and Young emerged as the senior surviving member.
Following the 1844 assassination of Joseph Smith, Young argued that the keys of the priesthood resided within the Quorum as an undivided council. He pointed out that Smith had systematically conferred every authority necessary to run the church onto the Twelve earlier that spring. Sidney Rigdon claimed a "guardianship," but Young persuaded the congregation in Nauvoo that the Quorum held legitimate operational authority.
From that confrontation forward, physical age stopped mattering. Seniority became tied directly to the date of ordination into the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. When two men joined the Quorum on the same day, the man ordained first, measured down to the minute, held lifetime seniority over the other.
