Mary Marshall (1833-1911), the youngest of eight children of William Marshall, an agricultural labourer, and Mary, his wife, was born at Hinton-on-the-Green, Gloucestershire, in 1833. She was baptised at Hinton on 3rd November 1833.
Mary was living at home in Hinton in 1841 but by 1851 was living on High Street, Evesham, working as a dressmaker. Her sister, Emma (1822-?), was also living and working in Evesham. Meanwhile, their eldest sister, Ann Knight (1812-1877), lived in Badsey with her husband, Charles, and growing family. Their widowed mother, Sarah, was staying with the Knight family at the time of the 1851 census, and Mary may also have stayed in Badsey with her sister for a time. This is when she would have met Edwin Knight, Charles Knight’s younger brother.
In 1852, 19-year-old Mary and 24-year-old Edwin set sail from Liverpool for a new life overseas, arriving in New York on 22nd November 1852. On the same boat was Mary’s sister, Emma. Although Mary appears on the ship’s manifest as Mary Knight, the couple did not actually marry until they reached America. They married on 15th February 1853 once they had settled in Bainbridge Township, Geauga County, Ohio.
In 1860 Mary was a servant in Auburn, Geauga County, Ohio, but Edwin’s whereabouts are unknown. Edwin was away from home in the mid 1860s serving in the American Civil War.
Mary and Edwin had no children of their own, but they looked after Mary’s nephew, Allen Darwin Simmons (1853-1934), who was the son of Mary’s sister, Emma, who had married William Simmons. What had happened to Emma and William is unknown. At the time of the 1870 and the 1880 Federal Census, Edwin and Mary were living at Troy Township, Geauga County, Ohio, together with Allen; Edwin was a farmer. By 1880, Allen’s wife and daughter were also living there. Also in the household was Mary’s 11-year-old nephew, George Marshall, who had been born at Hinton-on-the-Green in 1868, the son of Mary’s brother, William.
In the 1880s, Mary and Edwin moved from Ohio to Michigan. Edwin’s brother, William, and family, had emigrated to Ohio in the 1870s, but they moved to Michigan in 1888. Whether Mary and Edwin or William’s family made the first move is not known.
Edwin died at Greenbush, Clinton, Michigan, in 1898. Mary remained living with her nephew, Allen, and family at Greenbush Township, Clinton, Michigan, for the rest of her life. She died there on 24th September 1911 and was buried three days later at Eureka Cemetery beside her husband.