Brown, Mary Anne
1816 – 16 March 1870
A servant in the Mitchell household. Born in Tavistock, Devon. Her death, at the vicarage, was announced in the Derby Mercury where she was described as a "faithful servant and valued friend of the Rev. E. W. and Mrs Michell".Her memoirs are held at Derbyshire Record Office.
Terry Cox, a great, great, great, great nephew of Mary Anne emailed me the following information about Mary Anne:
Mary Ann Brown - ( 1815/16/17/18 - 1870) A possible enumerator error, she gives her age as 23 in 1841. Born in Tavistock into a large family of (mostly) blacksmiths from the Lifton/Lamerton/Tavistock area in west Devon (to see how large, find the Devon Blacksmiths webpage via google), her parents were Henry & Elizabeth (nee Kinsman) Brown. Henry was a carpenter, born 1783/84 in Lifton, her mother, who I can find little about, possibly born 1793/94 & probably died in 1825. From the baptism information of her older sister Elizabeth Kinsman Brown (my ggg grandmother), the family lived in Back Lane, Tavistock in about 1813/1814. In 1841 Henry, with his second wife Ann (though I can't find any marriage record) is living in Taylor Square, Tavistock along with Mary Ann, Henry Brown her younger brother and William Cox, her sister Elizabeth's eldest son and my ggg Uncle. In 1838 Mary Ann's sister Elizabeth Brown had married my ggg grandfather John Cox, rope maker. There seemed to be an ongoing issue with room at the Cox's as William Cox was one of several siblings who at various times were esconced with various members of the Brown family. There was also a servant, Ann Launder, aged 15.
Presumably Mary Ann began working for the Mitchells when they were living in Devon and travelled to Shirley with them. She, as you are aware, is with them on the 1851 & 1861 censuses, dying in 1870.