Mary Horner was born in about 1776 in Halifax. On 15th December 1800 she married butcher Christopher Green. Mary and Christopher had three children; John born in 1801, Rachel born in 1803, and Elizabeth (known as Betty) in 1807. Betty passed away in July 1810 aged 3, and was laid to rest with her paternal grandparents, John and Rachel in another grave in the graveyard (SC87).
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In 1815 Mary’s husband Christopher passed away aged 38. He was laid to rest with his daughter Betty and parents John and Rachel (SC87). Mary remarried in 1819 when she was 43 to John Spencer, also a butcher and the witness to her marriage to Christopher.
Marriage of Mary Green and John Spencer, Halifax St John the Baptist. With permission from WYAS Wakefield, WDP53/1/3/17. Accessed via www.Ancestry.co.uk [15/10/2024]
Her son John continued in his father’s and stepfather’s footsteps when he became an apprentice butcher in 1817. He was bound to Isaac Green for four years, but it is unclear if the surname Green was a coincidence or if he was a family member. John died in May 1832 and was laid to rest in this plot.
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Her daughter Rachel also married a butcher in 1836, James Noble. Rachel and James had three children who reached adulthood, but four of them died in childhood and were laid to rest with their grandmother Mary.
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Mary died in 1839 aged 63.
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For more information about Mary's family see:
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​Researched by Katie Wadsworth
Photograph of gravestone made for exhibition