Person:Margaret Stevens (25)

Margaret Stevens' origins have yet to be established. The age quoted when she died suggests she was born around 1703.

Margaret's first confirmed sighting is on 29th April 1732, when she married a miller called Joseph Ingram at Grantham in Lincolnshire. They went on to have four children baptised at Grantham between 1734 and 1743, although the eldest died when only nine years old and the youngest died aged seven. The family lived at Manthorpe, a hamlet to the north of the town of Grantham, where Joseph owned a watermill.

Joseph died in 1762, when he was said to be 65 years old. He left a will in which he described himself as living at Harrowby, another hamlet in Grantham parish to the south-east of Manthorpe, but it was clear he still owned the watermill at Manthorpe. He left all his property to Margaret, although it was subject to a mortgage of £150.

Margaret survived Joseph by seventeen years. Her daughter married in 1763 and Margaret's first known grandchild was born the following year. She would live to see eleven grandchildren born in her lifetime.

Margaret was buried at Great Gonerby, just west of Manthorpe, on 28th February 1779. She was said to be 75 years old and had been living at Harrowby immediately before her death.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Church of England. Parish Church of Great Gonerby (Lincolnshire). Parish registers, 1560-1885. (Lincoln, England: Lincolnshire Archives Office, 1993).

   Burials in the Year 1779 / Margaret Ingram of Harrowby, Widow Aged 75 [1703/4] February the 28th

2.   Lincoln Consistory Court, Probate Records (Lincolnshire Record Office, Lincoln)
   LCC Admons/1779/51, 1779.

   Margaret Ingram, widow of Manthorpe, Grantham, Lincolnshire