Mary Yarrow
(1804-1856)

Mary Yarrow (later Mary Owen) was the second of the ten children of William Yarrow, and his wife Elizabeth Wright of Little Thetford, Cambridgeshire, England.

She married Welshman Owen Owen, an "Eating House" keeper, and the couple went to live at The Yorkshire Grey public house at 53 Lower Thames Street, London where they raised six children.

The Eating House that the couple kept was just across the road from the river - a busy area for barges, which would be tied up at the wharfs at Lower Thames Street. This must have made their Eating House a very profitable one.

In the November of 1837, Mary's mother Elizabeth appears to have come to visit her, but she sadly dies, having suffered from kidney and heart disease. Her body is returned home for burial in the family plot at Stretham. In this same year, Mary gives birth to her daughter Elizabeth Owen, perhaps named after her, but sadly she also died when she was about 5 years old.

London frequently suffered plagues of rats coming from overseas in the barges and it is possible that Owen Owen fell victim to this when he died prematurely in 1849 after suffering from diarrhoea for 4 days.

Mary's brother, John Yarrow (back in Little Thetford) and her brother-in-law William Pavett, were noted as executors (along with Mary) in the will of her husband Owen.

The pub stayed in the Owen family hands for around 40 years, when it passed to Mary and Owen's oldest son William Owen and later to his wife Sarah.

Life Events

Born

• 27th April 1804 at Little Thetford, Cambridgeshire, England.

Baptised

• 19th May 1804 at St. George's Church, Little Thetford, Cambridgeshire, England.

Married

• Owen Owen (1802-1849) on 19th April 1829 at St. Vedast-alias-Foster Church in the City of London, England.

Children

• William Owen (1831-1870) married Sarah Lister (1829-1887)
• Matelda Owen (1833)
• Nanci Owen (1835-?)
• Maria Owen (1835-?)
• Elizabeth Owen (1837-1842)
• Jane Owen (1839-?)

Census and Residence

• 1841: 30yrs, 50 Lower Thames Street, All Hallows by the Tower, London, England.
• 1851: 47yrs, The Yorkshire Grey, 53 Lower Thames Street, All Hallows by the Tower, London, England.

Employment

• 1851-1856: Tavern Keeper at The Yorkshire Grey (Public House) at 53 Lower Thames Street.

Death

• 10th February 1856 at The Yorkshire Grey Public House, 53 Lower Thames Street, All Hallows by the Tower, London, England, aged 51 years.

Burial

• Not yet known.