Person:Mary Draper (24)

Mary Draper's origins have yet to be established. If the age quoted at her burial is correct she was born in about 1717. Her first confirmed sighting is on 7th May 1741, when she was married at Kirkby la Thorpe in Lincolnshire to a labourer named Thomas Allen. At the time of their marriage Mary was living at Ancaster, eight miles to the west of Kirkby la Thorpe. Thomas Allen was a widower; his first wife had died two years earlier and he appears to have had two surviving children from his first marriage.

Mary and Thomas went on to have a further five children together between 1742 and 1748, all baptised at Kirkby la Thorpe.

Mary was buried on 11th December 1754 at Kirkby la Thorpe. She was said to be 37 years old. Thomas survived her by nearly thirty years.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Church of England. Parish Church of Kirkby-le-Thorpe (Lincolnshire). Parish registers, 1660-1979. (Lincoln, England: Lincoln Archives Office, 1993).

   1754 / Mary Wife of Thomas Allen Labourer aged 37 was buried Dec[embe]r 11