Mary Roberts was born on 17 September 1796 and was baptised a month later, on 13 October, at St John Horsleydown, Bermondsey: ‘Mary, daughter of Abraham and Ann Roberts, Gent.’ 

We know from the London Gazette entry that Abraham had moved from East Lane to Horsleydown Lane, so this must be the same man, although the description of Abraham as a Gentleman is unexpected, especially given that we know he was a ropemaker two years earlier and was headed for the debtors’ jail. I take this to be an affectation, not unusual at the time amongst the merchant class.

Mary’s infant life must have been spent in and around Bermondsey, until her mother died in 1801. She must have been sent to Devon, to be cared for under the guardianship of her uncle, Pascho Pollard.

In August 1818, when she was twenty-one, Mary married by licence a builder, Richard Petherbridge (possibly b. 1788), at East Stonehouse, Plymouth. A marriage bond was drawn up to guarantee under penalty of a fine (£200) that the two people were legally available to marry each other and were not already related. It was signed by Mary’s brother, Lazarus Roberts: 

Marriage of Richard Petherbridge of East Stonehouse, unmarried and Mary Roberts of East Stonehouse, unmarried, 27th August 1818

Witness Lazarus Roberts Esquire, lieutenant in the Royal Navy, brother of Mary Roberts. Bond attached in the names of Richard Petherbridge and Lazarus Roberts Esquire

27th August 1818

Lazarus also witnessed the wedding itself along with (presumably) their sister Elizabeth. 

However it would appear Mary died four months later, in December 1818, at East Stonehouse. She was just twenty-two.

Mary is a very minor figure in this family history. Her life was a short one and she had no children, but her marriage bond (DEX/7/b/1/1818/226) and the marriage record itself are valuable as they are the only place I have found Lazarus and any of his siblings mentioned together by name. 

This is evidence that the Roberts children (Lazarus and Elizabeth, and the infants Ann and Mary) were all transferred to Devon after the death of their mother in London in 1801, under the terms of the Dunrich will.