Person:Mary Unknown (5283)

Mary’s maiden name and origins have yet to be established. Her first confirmed sighting is in 1767, by which time she was married to a man called John Hartwell and living at Adderbury in Oxfordshire. One possibility is that they were the John Hartley and Mary Powell who had marriage banns read at nearby South Newington in 1766.

Between 1767 and 1779 Mary and John had seven children baptised at Adderbury. The family’s surname was recorded variously as Hartlet, Hartwell, Harthel and Harttel.

John died just four months after the baptism of his youngest daughter. He was buried at Adderbury on 25th July 1779. Mary appears to have outlived him by many years. There are plausible burials for a Mary Hartwell at Adderbury in both 1807 and 1817, but with insufficient detail given to say which, if either, is her.

1.   Adderbury, Oxfordshire: Parish Registers (Oxfordshire History Centre, Oxford).

   Possible burials, either or neither of which may be her:
   
   Burials 1807 / Mar[ch] 21 / Mary Hartwell
   
   BURIALS in the Parish of Adderbury in the County of Oxford in the Year 1817
   No. 86 / Mary Hartwell / Adderbury East / Febr[uar]y 3 / 73 [1743/4] / H. Cotton