I confess to being intrigued by Mary Jones. She first appears at her marriage to the Rev. David Holt at Clowne, Derbyshire. I can find no record of her birth or that of Christopher Jones, who witnessed her marriage. Marriages are often witnessed by siblings to this day, so I had expected to find that he was her brother. The lack of any plausible records of the entire Jones family in that area seems strange.
Mary’s new husband was the curate of Gotham, near Nottingham, about thirty miles away. Not far to travel by modern standards but perhaps Mary was homesick: two years after their marriage, David would obtain the curacy of Whitwell, near Clowne. There is a curious entry in the baptism register of Whitwell for 1775/76. The names of the Holt children George and Mary have clearly been inserted after the register was compiled, presumably by David himself. Perhaps this means they were not resident there when the children were born.
It seems the family stayed in Whitwell: all of Mary’s ten children were baptised there and sadly, her infant daughter Ann was buried there in 1782. Mary herself was buried at Whitwell in 1809.
Mother of Elizabeth Holt
No birth record found
Married Rev. David Holt on 4 July 1774
Buried 10 March 1809