John Cook Bennett (August 4, 1804 – August 5, 1867) was an American physician and briefly a ranking and influential leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, who acted as mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, and Major-General of the Nauvoo Legion in the early 1840s. Early life John Cook Bennett was born on August 4, 1804 in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. He married Mary A. Barker. He worked as a physician in Ohio and helped found Willoughby Medical College there. Early Latter-day Saint Bennett's involvement in the Latter Day Saint movement came after several encounters with the community that had left him impressed. He therefore wrote several letters to Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois, in which he declared his desire to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He was baptized into the church in September of 1840. Prior to his baptism, he had expressed his intentions to join the growing body of Latter Day Saints in Nauvoo. His wife, Mary Barker, and their children did not accompany him. Bennett was essential to the passing of the Nauvoo city charter in the Illinois Legislature, the provisions of which he had helped craft. He even garnered praise for his lobbying efforts on behalf of the Mormons from the young Abraham Lincoln. His efforts on behalf of the Mormons and the long time he spent living in the Mansion House in Nauvoo secured for Bennett the confidence of Smith. Smith was instrumental in promoting Bennett to ever greater civic and ecclesiastical responsibilities in Nauvoo. Bennett became a Counselor in the First Presidency, according (Times and Seasons, Vol. II., No.12, page 387) on 7 Nov. 1841, as "Assistant President, until President Rigdon's health should be restored," and the mayor of Nauvoo, General of the Nauvoo Legion, and the chancellor of University of Nauvoo. Leaving the Latter-day Saints Bennett left the church for adultery on May 11, 1842. Rumors of adultery, homosexuality, and unauthorized polygamy emerged. Contemporary sources indicate that Bennett used his trusted position as a doctor to allay fears of women he attempted to seduce by telling them that he could cause abortions by administering medicine if they became pregnant. While Bennett was mayor, he was caught in private sexual relations with women in the city. He told the women that the practice, which he termed "spiritual wifery", was sanctioned by God and Smith and that Smith did the same. When discovered,