Mary married Jacob Saunders in 1779. We can be pretty sure of that year because their first child was born in 1780.
We do not know the exact year of either Jacob or Mary’s birth but 1760 may be a reasonable guess. Mary outlived Jacob by over forty years and appears on the 1850 and 1860 census. In 1850 she is listed as 90 years old and in 1860 she is listed as 105 years old, which would make her birth year 1755. Yet we know it is virtually impossible for her to have been born before 1760 because her last child was born in 1808 and even 1760 seems to stretch the limits because that would make her at least forty-eight at the birth of her last child.I think we can safely assume she was born between 1760 and 1765 and that she died in 1861 or later but we may never know her exact age at her death.
Family tradition is that she was 106 years old when she died, but that seems highly unlikely. That tradition goes back at least to 1918 when it was mentioned in a letter written by a family member.If Mary was claiming that she was 105 years old at the time of the 1860 census, or if the family at that time assumed that was her age, and she died the following year, we may have an explanation for that tradition mentioned in the 1918 letter. It seems evident, however, that she could not have been older than 100 in 1860 and she may have been a few years younger. Still, she was very old in 1860 and thus her nickname among the younger generations "Old Mary."
There is no family tradition about her maiden name. About twenty-five years ago, in the 1990s, the suggestion was made that Mary who married Jacob Saunders was the same person as Mary Hamilton, daughter of Joseph Hamilton of Brunswick County, Virginia. This theory was based on both women having the given name of Mary and the knowledge that some of Joseph Hamilton’s children are known to have moved to Montgomery County, North Carolina. What we know of the life of Mary, the wife of Jacob, however, doesn’t support this theory of her maiden name. When Mary and Jacob married in 1779, she could not have been older than nineteen years old. She was probably living with her parents in Montgomery County, North Carolina. The 1850 and 1860 census indicate a North Carolina birth place for the wife of Jacob, but Mary Hamilton, the daughter of Joseph, was born in Virginia. Further, the Mary Hamilton who was the daughter of Joseph Hamilton was living in Brunswick County with her parents in the 1760s at the same time the Reverend Moses Sanders was in the Halifax/Brunswick area of Virginia. There is firm family tradition that goes back early 1800s that Jacob's uncle, the Reverend Moses Sanders, married a Mary Hamilton in Virginia and the most likely Mary Hamilton for him to have married was the Mary Hamilton who lived near him in Brunswick/Halifax. For the theory that Jacob Saunders married Mary Hamilton of Brunswick to work, we would have to assume a teenage Mary Hamilton left her parents in Brunswick, Virginia, and moved in 1779 two hundred miles across the Virginia/North Carolina boundary line to marry Jacob Sanders of Montgomery County, North Carolina, and that there was another, unknown Mary Hamilton in Brunswick/Halifax area of Virginia for the Reverend Moses to marry. It is just simpler to accept that we do not know the maiden name of Jacob Saunders' wife. [There was also a Mary Hamilton(daughter of Arthur Hamilton)who lived in Augusta County, Virginia, but she was born nearly thirty years before the Reverend Moses Sanders and over forty years before Jacob was born and she married a Campbell, not a Sanders.]
As with her husband Jacob, no tombstone marker has been found for Mary, but the burial site is believed to be on one of the original Jacob Saunders land grants which consisted of sites within the area now bounded by Horseshoe Bend Road, Lovejoy Road, and Flint Hill Road in northeast Montgomery County.
We do not know the exact year of either Jacob or Mary’s birth but 1760 may be a reasonable guess. Mary outlived Jacob by over forty years and appears on the 1850 and 1860 census. In 1850 she is listed as 90 years old and in 1860 she is listed as 105 years old, which would make her birth year 1755. Yet we know it is virtually impossible for her to have been born before 1760 because her last child was born in 1808 and even 1760 seems to stretch the limits because that would make her at least forty-eight at the birth of her last child.I think we can safely assume she was born between 1760 and 1765 and that she died in 1861 or later but we may never know her exact age at her death.
Family tradition is that she was 106 years old when she died, but that seems highly unlikely. That tradition goes back at least to 1918 when it was mentioned in a letter written by a family member.If Mary was claiming that she was 105 years old at the time of the 1860 census, or if the family at that time assumed that was her age, and she died the following year, we may have an explanation for that tradition mentioned in the 1918 letter. It seems evident, however, that she could not have been older than 100 in 1860 and she may have been a few years younger. Still, she was very old in 1860 and thus her nickname among the younger generations "Old Mary."
There is no family tradition about her maiden name. About twenty-five years ago, in the 1990s, the suggestion was made that Mary who married Jacob Saunders was the same person as Mary Hamilton, daughter of Joseph Hamilton of Brunswick County, Virginia. This theory was based on both women having the given name of Mary and the knowledge that some of Joseph Hamilton’s children are known to have moved to Montgomery County, North Carolina. What we know of the life of Mary, the wife of Jacob, however, doesn’t support this theory of her maiden name. When Mary and Jacob married in 1779, she could not have been older than nineteen years old. She was probably living with her parents in Montgomery County, North Carolina. The 1850 and 1860 census indicate a North Carolina birth place for the wife of Jacob, but Mary Hamilton, the daughter of Joseph, was born in Virginia. Further, the Mary Hamilton who was the daughter of Joseph Hamilton was living in Brunswick County with her parents in the 1760s at the same time the Reverend Moses Sanders was in the Halifax/Brunswick area of Virginia. There is firm family tradition that goes back early 1800s that Jacob's uncle, the Reverend Moses Sanders, married a Mary Hamilton in Virginia and the most likely Mary Hamilton for him to have married was the Mary Hamilton who lived near him in Brunswick/Halifax. For the theory that Jacob Saunders married Mary Hamilton of Brunswick to work, we would have to assume a teenage Mary Hamilton left her parents in Brunswick, Virginia, and moved in 1779 two hundred miles across the Virginia/North Carolina boundary line to marry Jacob Sanders of Montgomery County, North Carolina, and that there was another, unknown Mary Hamilton in Brunswick/Halifax area of Virginia for the Reverend Moses to marry. It is just simpler to accept that we do not know the maiden name of Jacob Saunders' wife. [There was also a Mary Hamilton(daughter of Arthur Hamilton)who lived in Augusta County, Virginia, but she was born nearly thirty years before the Reverend Moses Sanders and over forty years before Jacob was born and she married a Campbell, not a Sanders.]
As with her husband Jacob, no tombstone marker has been found for Mary, but the burial site is believed to be on one of the original Jacob Saunders land grants which consisted of sites within the area now bounded by Horseshoe Bend Road, Lovejoy Road, and Flint Hill Road in northeast Montgomery County.
Mary married Jacob Saunders in 1779. We can be pretty sure of that year because their first child was born in 1780.
We do not know the exact year of either Jacob or Mary’s birth but 1760 may be a reasonable guess. Mary outlived Jacob by over forty years and appears on the 1850 and 1860 census. In 1850 she is listed as 90 years old and in 1860 she is listed as 105 years old, which would make her birth year 1755. Yet we know it is virtually impossible for her to have been born before 1760 because her last child was born in 1808 and even 1760 seems to stretch the limits because that would make her at least forty-eight at the birth of her last child.I think we can safely assume she was born between 1760 and 1765 and that she died in 1861 or later but we may never know her exact age at her death.
Family tradition is that she was 106 years old when she died, but that seems highly unlikely. That tradition goes back at least to 1918 when it was mentioned in a letter written by a family member.If Mary was claiming that she was 105 years old at the time of the 1860 census, or if the family at that time assumed that was her age, and she died the following year, we may have an explanation for that tradition mentioned in the 1918 letter. It seems evident, however, that she could not have been older than 100 in 1860 and she may have been a few years younger. Still, she was very old in 1860 and thus her nickname among the younger generations "Old Mary."
There is no family tradition about her maiden name. About twenty-five years ago, in the 1990s, the suggestion was made that Mary who married Jacob Saunders was the same person as Mary Hamilton, daughter of Joseph Hamilton of Brunswick County, Virginia. This theory was based on both women having the given name of Mary and the knowledge that some of Joseph Hamilton’s children are known to have moved to Montgomery County, North Carolina. What we know of the life of Mary, the wife of Jacob, however, doesn’t support this theory of her maiden name. When Mary and Jacob married in 1779, she could not have been older than nineteen years old. She was probably living with her parents in Montgomery County, North Carolina. The 1850 and 1860 census indicate a North Carolina birth place for the wife of Jacob, but Mary Hamilton, the daughter of Joseph, was born in Virginia. Further, the Mary Hamilton who was the daughter of Joseph Hamilton was living in Brunswick County with her parents in the 1760s at the same time the Reverend Moses Sanders was in the Halifax/Brunswick area of Virginia. There is firm family tradition that goes back early 1800s that Jacob's uncle, the Reverend Moses Sanders, married a Mary Hamilton in Virginia and the most likely Mary Hamilton for him to have married was the Mary Hamilton who lived near him in Brunswick/Halifax. For the theory that Jacob Saunders married Mary Hamilton of Brunswick to work, we would have to assume a teenage Mary Hamilton left her parents in Brunswick, Virginia, and moved in 1779 two hundred miles across the Virginia/North Carolina boundary line to marry Jacob Sanders of Montgomery County, North Carolina, and that there was another, unknown Mary Hamilton in Brunswick/Halifax area of Virginia for the Reverend Moses to marry. It is just simpler to accept that we do not know the maiden name of Jacob Saunders' wife. [There was also a Mary Hamilton(daughter of Arthur Hamilton)who lived in Augusta County, Virginia, but she was born nearly thirty years before the Reverend Moses Sanders and over forty years before Jacob was born and she married a Campbell, not a Sanders.]
As with her husband Jacob, no tombstone marker has been found for Mary, but the burial site is believed to be on one of the original Jacob Saunders land grants which consisted of sites within the area now bounded by Horseshoe Bend Road, Lovejoy Road, and Flint Hill Road in northeast Montgomery County.
We do not know the exact year of either Jacob or Mary’s birth but 1760 may be a reasonable guess. Mary outlived Jacob by over forty years and appears on the 1850 and 1860 census. In 1850 she is listed as 90 years old and in 1860 she is listed as 105 years old, which would make her birth year 1755. Yet we know it is virtually impossible for her to have been born before 1760 because her last child was born in 1808 and even 1760 seems to stretch the limits because that would make her at least forty-eight at the birth of her last child.I think we can safely assume she was born between 1760 and 1765 and that she died in 1861 or later but we may never know her exact age at her death.
Family tradition is that she was 106 years old when she died, but that seems highly unlikely. That tradition goes back at least to 1918 when it was mentioned in a letter written by a family member.If Mary was claiming that she was 105 years old at the time of the 1860 census, or if the family at that time assumed that was her age, and she died the following year, we may have an explanation for that tradition mentioned in the 1918 letter. It seems evident, however, that she could not have been older than 100 in 1860 and she may have been a few years younger. Still, she was very old in 1860 and thus her nickname among the younger generations "Old Mary."
There is no family tradition about her maiden name. About twenty-five years ago, in the 1990s, the suggestion was made that Mary who married Jacob Saunders was the same person as Mary Hamilton, daughter of Joseph Hamilton of Brunswick County, Virginia. This theory was based on both women having the given name of Mary and the knowledge that some of Joseph Hamilton’s children are known to have moved to Montgomery County, North Carolina. What we know of the life of Mary, the wife of Jacob, however, doesn’t support this theory of her maiden name. When Mary and Jacob married in 1779, she could not have been older than nineteen years old. She was probably living with her parents in Montgomery County, North Carolina. The 1850 and 1860 census indicate a North Carolina birth place for the wife of Jacob, but Mary Hamilton, the daughter of Joseph, was born in Virginia. Further, the Mary Hamilton who was the daughter of Joseph Hamilton was living in Brunswick County with her parents in the 1760s at the same time the Reverend Moses Sanders was in the Halifax/Brunswick area of Virginia. There is firm family tradition that goes back early 1800s that Jacob's uncle, the Reverend Moses Sanders, married a Mary Hamilton in Virginia and the most likely Mary Hamilton for him to have married was the Mary Hamilton who lived near him in Brunswick/Halifax. For the theory that Jacob Saunders married Mary Hamilton of Brunswick to work, we would have to assume a teenage Mary Hamilton left her parents in Brunswick, Virginia, and moved in 1779 two hundred miles across the Virginia/North Carolina boundary line to marry Jacob Sanders of Montgomery County, North Carolina, and that there was another, unknown Mary Hamilton in Brunswick/Halifax area of Virginia for the Reverend Moses to marry. It is just simpler to accept that we do not know the maiden name of Jacob Saunders' wife. [There was also a Mary Hamilton(daughter of Arthur Hamilton)who lived in Augusta County, Virginia, but she was born nearly thirty years before the Reverend Moses Sanders and over forty years before Jacob was born and she married a Campbell, not a Sanders.]
As with her husband Jacob, no tombstone marker has been found for Mary, but the burial site is believed to be on one of the original Jacob Saunders land grants which consisted of sites within the area now bounded by Horseshoe Bend Road, Lovejoy Road, and Flint Hill Road in northeast Montgomery County.
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