Miriam was born at Dedham and baptised at St Mary’s church on 19 April 1791, aged five, the eldest daughter of Thomas and Sarah Mason. So she was born in 1785/6.

On 21 October 1810 at Ardleigh church (why not Dedham?) she married John Thomas Rudlin (in her father’s will the name is given as Rudland). The announcement in the Suffolk Chronicle read:

Monday last, at Ardleigh, by the Rev. Mr. Bishop, Mr. John Rudlin, grocer and draper, to Miriam, eldest daughter of Mr. Thomas Mason, both of Dedham.

Sixteen months later, an advert appeared in the Essex Standard, on 27 February 1812:

Comfortable Apartments at Dedham

To be LET, with immediate Possession.

A Good Keeping Room, Parlour, Two Chambers over the same, and 2 atticks, also a stable, kitchens and flower garden, and every other convenience. Further particulars apply to Mr Rudlin, Dedham, Essex.

A nice description possibly of their own home. They moved on from Dedham and in the 1820s and 30s were probably at Brightlingsea. In 1841 they were living at Great Coggeshall with their children Henry, John (junior), Robert and Emma. John senior was of independent means.

John senior died at Layer Breton, Essex on 1 September 1850, aged sixty-nine. The following year, Miriam was listed as a sixty-four-year-old widowed school mistress at Layer Breton, with her widowed daughter Miriam E. Gilbert; her younger, unmarried daughter, Emma Rudlin; her son Edgar Mason Rudlin (died 1853); and three grandchildren, the children of her daughter Miriam.

In 1861, aged seventy-four, Miriam was housekeeper for her brother, Robert. She died on 30 April 1869, at Colchester. The notice in the Essex Standard confirms the name of her husband and that she was the eldest daughter of the late Thomas Mason of Hill House, Dedham. In the early decades of the 1800s, the eight-bedroomed Hill House, dating to the early eighteenth century, was the residence of the land-agent William Downes. There is no record of Thomas living here, but this may in fact mean Hill Farm (see James Mason).