Mary Underdown (1682-)

Baptism
Mary Underdown was baptized in Honiton on Otter on the 29th March 1682 to a Thomas and Johan Underdowne. The author of this book believes her to be the younger sibling of elder brothers Thomas and John.

Move to East Devon
Mary was the first child of the family to be baptized in the Honiton district. Her elder brothers had been baptized in Ottery St Mary. Why the family made this move is not yet known, but it likely that Thomas’s father was in the weaving trade and moved to the area to take up new work opportunities. Honiton is said to have been the first town in Devon in which serges (a durable twilled woollen or worsted fabric) were made, and there was a flourishing woollen industry here in the 17th-18th cents. It was also notable from Elizabethan times for the manufacture of a fine lace.

Marriage and Death
No further information about Mary and her life is available at this time.