Do we have the correct parents for Thomas Hardy (the novelists) grandmother?

Question

At the moment Mary Head is said to have been born in Edmondsham, Dorset with parents William Head and Mary Cutler. The source is a baptism of a Mary Head in Edmondsham in 1773.

These are the research notes I've added (references and image of gravestone on profile) The profile is orphaned so I have no-one to discuss this with.

According to Mary's gravestone, she was born in 1772, her father was stated to be James Head who came from Fawley, Berkshire and who died in 1772 . Her mother was said to be Mary. In the 1851 census where her age was given as 77, her birthplace was entered as Reading, Berkshire ^[11]

According to references describing Hardy's Wessex, Marygreen in Jude the Obscure refers to Fawley in Berkshire where his grandmother was born. He visited Fawley, presumably in search of his roots. ^[12] [13]

In addition I've found a facebook post which mentions his grandmother's baptism in the Fawley register, daughter of James and Mary (Hobson) [don't know if this link will work https://www.facebook.com/royalberkshirehistory/posts/one-of-the-people-ive-been-researching-recently-is-mary-head-the-paternal-grandm/2481994528531051/

I'm not able to find this baptism, suspect the register might be on Findmypast which I don't have access to at the moment. There is a marriage of a James Head and Mary Hobson in 1771 in Wantage, Berkshire https://ukga.org/search.php?action=ViewRec&DB=36&recid=7944

Answer 1

FMP has a transcript of the BT's for Fawley in Berkshire and the baptism for

Mary Head, on 30th October 1772, the daughter of James and Mary Head.

Checked the burials in Fawley and James Head was buried on 6th May 1772.

Would have expected the baptism register to record that the father was deceased.

Comments

Thank you for the look-up. I've found some quotations from Hardy's posthumously published autobiography (originally said to have been authored by Florence Hardy) As he grew up with his granny in the household, I would think he got her origins right. He even revisited Fawley  church to check the graveyard on his last major trip at tge age of 82. His modern biographers certainly have no doubts about her Fawley origins or that she was an orphan with father dying before her birth and mother whilst she was very young. She then spent some years in Reading which Hardy also visited. No-one knows when or why she moved to Dorset. Perhaps she was in service.

Hilary Gadsby has already unlinked the supposed  'mother 'and changed the father's Christian name from William to James.

I think I'll also write a disputed origins section. There are 447 Ancestry trees with Mary Head in them, only a few with the  Fawley birth. Most have the Edmondsham baptism and parents.

Can I ask you for another FMP lookup? The baptism and burial of William Head and the burial of Mary Head c. 1776. It's a pity that FMP hasn't the original parish reg. Sometimes they're a bit more informative than the BTs. (but then again, if there was more info someone would have already found it)

Thank you

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The baptism for William Head was on 25th April 1779 and he was the son of Mary Head - no father named in either the PR or BT's.

The burial of William Head was on 2nd May 1779 - no age or name of parent/s added to record

The burial of Mary Head, from the BT's, was 8th May 1779 - no age or further information included.

All transcripts are for St Mary Fawley, Berkshire.

Just a thought - do you know if the witnesses at her marriage to Thomas Hardy - [initial] Willis and William Carter - are related to Mary?