Mary Cook (occasionally appears as Cooke) was born at Badsey on 30th August 1854, the eldest of eight children of John Cook, a baker, and his wife, Mary Eleanor Hughes (née Holland). She was baptised in St James’ Church, Badsey, on 22nd September 1854.
Mary spent the first four years of her life living in a house now known as The Wheatsheaf Inn, in a household which comprised her parents, her grandmother, Esther Knight, her step-grandfather, Joseph Knight, his four children (Ann Elizabeth, Joseph, Sarah Sophia and Charles Frederick) and subsequently her younger brother, Edward.
In 1858, four-year-old Mary emigrated to Canada with her parents and younger brother. Her grandmother and her new family emigrated too. Whether the Cook and Knight families all went out together, or whether one family went first and the other followed, is not known.
Mary and her family settled in Mersea, Essex County, Ontario, where her father took up farming. Six more siblings were born in Canada.
On 24th May 1876 at Kingsville, Essex County, Mary married Cornelius Matthew Wigle. They had six children: Valeria (1877), Ethel Irene (1879-1904), Harry J (1882), Eva Beatrice (1886-1908), Herbert L (1888) and Richard (1892).
Mary died at Gosfield North, Essex County on 29th June 1908 and was buried at Cottam Cemetery; the cause of death was tuberculosis phttisis. Cornelius married again, to Susan; he died at Gosfield South, Essex County in 1935.