Phoebe Simson Maria Mason (in some records her middle names appear transposed) was my great-great grandmother, the wife of James Mackenzie Roberts. She was born at Dedham, Essex and baptised there on 25 May 1819. Her father was James Mason (1789­–1869) and her mother Phoebe Simson Wilmar Mason (née Witheat, 1794–1849).

Phoebe Simson Maria Mason and James Mackenzie Roberts were married at the Brightlingsea parish church of All Saints, on 14 January 1847. Lazarus attended the wedding – he was on shore between 14 and 27 January and travelled down from Yarmouth for the occasion – and included his name as a witness, along with Phoebe’s father, her elder brother, her young sisters Helen and Mary, and also a Mary Jane Tillett and Emma C. Tillett.

Phoebe died on 12 March 1880 – ‘very suddenly’, according to an announcement in the local paper – and was interred with her mother in the Brantham churchyard where James would join her ten years later.