Mary Coutts (1868 – 1910)

Mary Stevenson was born in 1868 in Chilton Foliat in Wiltshire, the eldest child of Samuel and Sarah Ann, nee Barnes, Stevenson. In the 1871 census she was recorded with her parents and sister Adelaide Emma aged 6 months in Chilton Foliat, her father was a groom.

Ten years late in the 1881 census Mary was living with her parents and siblings Emma aged 11, Samuel aged 9, Louisa aged 7, Joseph aged 5, William aged 3 and Henry aged 2 in Winterbourne. Her father Samuel was recorded as a coachman.

Mary married Thomas Coutts in 1890 in Keighley in Yorkshire. Thomas was born circa 1861 in Derby. A daughter Edith May was born 22 May 1890 in Keighley. The following year in the 1891 census Mary and Thomas with daughter Edith were recorded at Farnhill in Yorkshire, Thomas was a general labourer.

Mary and Thomas had three further children, Harry born in Derby in 1892, Frances Louisa A born 1894 in Newbury and William Samuel born 1896 in Newbury.

In the 1901 census Mary was living with brother Joseph Stevenson and her four children at 4 Exchange Buildings in Newbury. Joseph occupation was recorded as “hotel boots” and Mary was a needlewoman.

Mary died in December 1910 aged 43 while living at The Wharf in Newbury. She was buried at Newtown Road Cemetery on 29 December 1910.

After Mary’s death her children all moved away from Newbury. Frances volunteered with the British Red Cross in 1918 while living in Willesden, she married William Taylor in Wandsworth in 1925 and died in Auckland circa 1986. Edith was recorded with her brother Harry and his family in Hendon in September 1939 and she died in 1987 in Worthing. Harry died in Hendon in 1950, he was a Metropolitan police officer in 1939. William Samuel died in Jersey in 1975.

Mary’s brother Joseph Stevenson died on 26 April 1904 at Newbury Union Workhouse aged 28. He was buried at Newtown Road Cemetery on 29 April 1904.

Sources: