Introduction

The central theme of Mary Taylor’s life story revolves around illegitimate children, blended families and family support. She had an illegitimate son named Thomas. Seven years later, she married William Taylor and became the stepmother to his two daughters. When the younger daughter had an illegitimate daughter named Ann, William and Mary raised Ann as if she were their own child. Later, Mary provided a home for Ann’s husband and their children.

Birth

Mary was born at Hardington on 9 June 1791, to Thomas and Elizabeth Churchill.

An illegitimate son

Mary had an illegitimate son, Thomas, in about 1815. He married Mary Giles at East Coker on 21 September 1835.

Marriage

On 9 April 1822, Mary married William Taylor, a sailcloth weaver, at Hardington. His first wife, Ruth Churchill, had died the year before, aged 53, leaving him with two children, Ann and Ruth.[1]

Married life at Hardington

William and Mary lived at Hardington Marsh. The tithe survey recorded William as the occupier of a house and garden at Hardington Marsh (plot 687 on the tithe map) and an allotment in Cold Harbour.

An illegitimate granddaughter

William’s daughter, Ruth, moved to Rampisham, where she had an illegitimate daughter, Ann, in about 1829. When Ruth married Robert Purchase, a farm labourer, at Hardington on 25 October 1832, she left Ann in the care of William and Mary.

The 1841 census shows a household which comprised William and Mary, William’s daughter, Ann, and his granddaughter, also called Ann.

William’s daughter, Ann, died from dropsy on 5 April 1844 at the age of 42.[2]

The 1851 census shows William, Mary and their granddaughter, Ann, living at Hardington Marsh. All three are described as sailcloth weavers.

By this time, Ann was pregnant and unmarried. She gave birth to a son, William, whose birth was registered in the second quarter of 1851. On 16 February 1852, Ann married Charles Denty, a farm labourer, who then moved in with Mary and Ann. Mary’s husband, William, had died in November or December 1851 at the age of 80.

The 1861 census recorded a household consisting of Mary, who was described as a house owner, Charles, Ann, Ann’s son William, and two other children, Francis and Charles.

Death

Mary died in January or February 1870 at the age of 80. Around the same time, Charles Denty fell ill with a spinal disease from which he died on 16 February 1871.[3] His wife, Ann, remained in the village until at least 1901.[4] One of her daughters, Lucinda, had two illegitimate children.

References

[1] Two other children, George and Elizabeth, had died in infancy. Ruth and Mary were not sisters, but may have been related.

[2] Death certificate of Ann Taylor.

[3] Death certificate of Charles Denty.

[4] Ann Denty’s death has not been found.