Martha Jane Knowlton Coray (June 3, 1821 – December 14, 1881) was an American Mormon pioneer, record keeper, and educator.

Born in Kentucky and raised in Ohio and Illinois, Coray converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a young woman and moved to the Mormon settlement of Nauvoo.

After crossing the Great Plains alongside other Mormon pioneers, Coray settled in Utah Territory, homesteading in towns such as Tooele and Mona.

Though she never received formal schooling, Coray studied various topics in her free time and sought to teach her children what she knew.

Towards the end of her life, in 1875, Coray was appointed a member of the first Brigham Young Academy Board of Trustees, the only woman to serve in this capacity at the time.

[4] The Knowlton family moved around the Midwestern United States during Coray's childhood, living in towns such as Cumminsville, Ohio and Bear Creek, Illinois.

[1] She attended a Campbellite church as a child, and, at the age of ten, taught a Sunday School class of students older than she.

[2] Her father had offered work and housing to some of the Latter-day Saint refugees, and Coray began attending their religious meetings.

She listened to many speakers, including George A. Smith,[3] whose discourses convinced her to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"[6] Sometime after her baptism in January 1840 and before her marriage in 1841, Coray began recording Joseph Smith's speeches in a small notebook she carried with her.

[6] Years later, Howard reported that, during a carriage ride, Hyrum had recited to them the exact wording of the "revelation on celestial marriage" as dictated by Joseph Smith.

In January 1846 Martha and Howard Coray entered the Nauvoo Temple to participate in the endowment ceremony [2] and were resealed by Brigham Young.

[12] Much of Coray's early work on this project involved transcribing Mack Smith's verbal narratives of her son's life.

[5] Researcher Elizabeth Anderson describes Coray's work on the biography as "a natural outgrowth of her deep admiration and love for the Prophet Joseph Smith.

[12] The manuscript is written in both Howard and Martha Coray's handwriting,[7] but the prose most often reflects Lucy Mack Smith's own style.

It is known, however, that Coray had expressed the desire to produce a book of short stories from Smith's life to serve as a tool to teach children about him.

[5] In 1853, Orson Pratt published copies of the work in England under the title "Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations".

[9] In order to obtain the means necessary to make the journey, the Coray family worked as government farmers and ferry boat tenders in various places in the Midwest,[8] including Kanesville, Iowa; Fort Kearny; and along the banks of Missouri and the Nishnabotna Rivers.

[6] Coray was twenty-seven years old, and had five children under the age of eight—her son Howard and daughters Martha, Harriet, Mary, and Euphrina—to tend to during the journey.

[15] Coray was a member of the Thirteenth Ward Relief Society in Salt Lake City, and served as the organization's first secretary.

With this move, Coray shifted her home industry focus from producing cheese to crafting soap and distilling ointments.

Her soap production served as the family's contribution to the United Order, an initiative pushing towards Latter-day Saint self-sufficiency.

Towards the end of her life, her grown children moved to Mona to build homes for their own families on the Coray property and live there.

Her priority was helping the Latter-day Saints maintain their autonomy in Utah Territory, and she contributed to this effort by producing homemade liniments and health products, as well as establishing a Latter-day Saint-operated school; financial support for educational institutions in Utah Territory at the time was not well-established or stable.

In addition to the histories she recorded throughout her life, Coray wrote pieces on women's rights,[6] and some of her writing was published in the Exponent.

[6] Her daughter Martha described her as "a rapid and lucid writer, a brilliant conversationalist, and a fine speaker on a wide range of subjects," including history, philosophy, poetry, and law.

[4] During the founding of the LDS Church's educational system, Brigham Young had instituted a rule that each academy board include at least one woman.

[6] Throughout her time at the academy, Coray wrote many letters to Brigham Young, keeping him updated on subjects such as enrollment and curriculum.

I am now so situated that I can give considerable attention to its workings and its struggling also to accomplish the greatest good, with the smallest amount of means".

The lecture hall in the Karl G. Maeser Building on Brigham Young University (BYU) campus is dedicated to and named after Coray.