Mary Richards was born around 1812 or 1813 in Colyton, Devon, to William Richards (about 27), a journeyman papermaker, and Mary Richards (nee Shoard) (about 33).
Mary was baptised on 10th January 1813 in Colyton. She was named after her mother.
Mary was the eldest of two girls:
- Mary 1813 -
- Martha 1816 -
In 1824 or 1825, when Mary was about eleven or twelve, her mother passed away, in her early forties. She was buried in Colyton.
When Mary was about thirteen, her father remarried. On 15th May 1826, widower William Richards (about 40) married young Somersetian lacemaker Leah Weston (about 18) in Colyton.
From this marriage, Mary and Martha gained a younger half-brother:
- William 1829 -
Sadly, their father William soon passed away, aged about forty-three. He was buried on 27th December 1829 in Colyton.
A little over a year later, Mary's stepmother Leah remarried. On 29th January 1831, Leah married stone mason's labourer William Hill in Colyton. Leah and William Hill would go on to have many children, and Mary's younger half-brother William would live with the Hill family.
On 22nd September 1831, Mary (18), a lacemaker, married James Willis (21), a blacksmith, in Colyton. Mary was about seven and half months pregnant when she married.
In November 1831, Mary gave birth to her first child, a son called William Richards Needs Willis. It looks likely Mary named her firstborn son after her late father, William Richards.
Mary and James would have a grand total of fourteen children (four sons and ten daughters):
- William Richards Needs 1831 -
- John Needs 1833 -
- Clara Elizabeth 1834 -
- Mary Ann 1839 -
- Sarah Ann 1840 -
- James 1843 -
- Keziah 1845 -
- Judith Maria 1846 -
- Susan Armenia 1848 -
- Leah 1850 - 1859 (2 weeks)
- Emily 1851 - 1852 (1 year)
- Eliza Ann 1854 -
- Catherine 1856 -
- Philip Henry 1856 - 1857 (8 months)
Their youngest two children, Catherine and Philip Henry, were twins.
Sadly three of their children passed away in infancy: little Leah, who was likely named after Mary's stepmother, at only two weeks, in 1850; followed by one-year-old Emily in 1852; and their youngest Philip Henry, at eight months, in 1857.
Records show Mary and her family lived in and around the town of Colyton and, only two or so miles north, the village of Shute.
1841 Census:
1851 Census:
Whilst their sons followed in their father's footsteps and became blacksmiths, the censuses show many of their daughters followed in Mary's footsteps and became lace-makers. Lace-making was a common occupation for labouring women in east Devon till recent history. It requires great skill and was often taught to girls from a young age. I can picture Mary and her daughters, with other local women and girls, gathered round a single lamp, on little stools, lace-making.
1861 Census:
In it interesting and lovely to see that James and Mary seem to take in and raise their young daughters' illegitimate children, including Mary Ann's son William John James Willis (as shown living with them on the 1861 and 1871 censuses) and Sarah Ann's children William and Mary William (also shown living with them on the 1871 and 1881 censuses).
When Mary was forty, her son James, aged nineteen, was put on trial, along with his younger friend and fellow blacksmith, sixteen-year-old Joseph Boles, for demanding by force the money of local elderly postman James Gosling, at Shute, on 2nd February 1863. The Western Times of 27th February 1863 reported on the 'highway robbery': as he [Gosling] was on his way there [Colyton Railway Station for newspapers], on the day named, the prisoners approached him from a hedge, and said, in commanding tones, "Yield up your money or your life." On telling them that he had no money, they pushed him into the hedge, and in doing so tore his cape." The lads were found guilty and James junior, being the older prisoner, was sentenced to three months imprisonment.
1871 Census:
The family's lodger, George Anley Sandford, would soon marry Mary's daughter Sarah Ann, a single mother of two, in her early thirties. Her two children born before marriage would stay living with her parents.
1881 Census:
It seems Parkhayne Cottage in Colyton became a family home for Mary and her family, as they can be found living there over several censuses.
In 1886, when Mary was about seventy-three, her husband James passed away, aged about seventy-six, in the parish of Axminster. (Colyton and Shute are within this parish)
Mary passed away two years later, aged about seventy-five, in 1888, also in the parish of Axminster.
