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Who was Mary Ann Hexter?

Posted by Donald Brett on 16/1/2019, 6:51 pm

I am pursuing a fascinating Hexter mystery. It started with good DNA matches between me and a couple of my cousins with an American with the surname Shapley. Now I knew the Shapley name because my mother Dorothy Hexter had told me that Gertrude Shapley, a Texas schoolteacher, came over from the US in ‘about 1908’ to visit the family of my grt grandfather John Hexter in Croydon. When I delved into the US Shapley families there indeed was Gertrude and she appears in the passenger list returning to USA on the ship “St Paul” in August 1909. So there was no doubt of a connection between my Hexter family & these Shapleys.

Gertrude’s mother ‘Mary A R Hexter’ married James Shapley in Chicago in 1876. When ‘Mary Ann Shapley’ died in Texas in 1940, her birthplace is down as Exeter, her father is named as Unknown Hexter and mother’s maiden name Unknown. In some US Family Trees she is variously named as Mary Randall, Mary Reynolds or Mary Ann Randall Hexter. No-one seemed sure! Some even thought Hexter was simply a mistake because of her place of birth. This made me wonder whether she could be an illegitimate daughter of our Ann Rendle i.e. John Hexter’s mother. Mary Ann’s birthday is given in the US Census and at her death as 11 June 1847. This would not be possible as a sister of John because his sister Ellen Eliza was born 24 June 1847. However, a birth in 1846 (at or before her parents' marriage) or 1848 would be OK. We have searched US and Canadian records but can find no other records of Mary Ann before she pops up in Chicago for her marriage in November 1876 where her age was given as 28 - not as expected 29.

The GRO Indexes have no record of Mary Ann Hexter’s birth having been registered (there are three others that can be discounted, including one who married another Shapley!). I’ve not found a baptism although I have only been able to check the most likely Devon registers that are online. I’ve also looked at a lot of Rendle/Rendall/Randall births and baptisms but nothing seems to fit. There is a tantalising record in the Devon Archives of a Bastardy complaint brought in October 1844 by Ann Rendle in Crediton with no father named. The Order was refused. But our Ann Rendle wasn’t the only one in Crediton.

Re: Who was Mary Ann Hexter?

Posted by Karen Newman on 21/1/2019, 1:28 pm, in reply to "Who was Mary Ann Hexter?"

Do you have a copy of, or have you seen, the actual marriage entry, to ascertain what the 'R' stood for?

Re: Who was Mary Ann Hexter?

Posted by Donald Brett on 22/1/2019, 5:06 pm, in reply to "Re: Who was Mary Ann Hexter?"

Thanks for your interest. This is the source of some confusion in the Shapley family. I have a copy of the Marriage License and Certificate where she is 'Miss Mary A R Hexter'. On her Death Certificate she is 'Mary A Shapley' where the Informant was her daughter Gertrude (now Mrs Buchanan). The memorial stone on her grave has 'Mary A Shapley' but someone has entered some family details on the findagrave.com site under the name 'Mary Ann Reynolds Hexter'. (Some of the other details are incorrect). A Shapley family tree on Ancestry has 'Mary Ann Randall'. Clearly there was some knowledge in the Shapley family that the 'R' stood for something along these lines. I would not be surprised by Randall because Rendle appears as Rendall on the GRO birth certificate of one of Anne's daughters.

Re: Who was Mary Ann Hexter?

Posted by Karen Newman on 23/1/2019, 11:16 am, in reply to "Re: Who was Mary Ann Hexter?"

I think it likely that she is the daughter of Ann Rendle of Crediton (who goes on to marry Charles Hexter). There is a birth reg for a Mary Ann RENDELL in 1844, Crediton reg dist. I think there is no mother’s maiden name on this one, but it is missing from the GRO enhanced index (though it appears on the ‘hard copy’). It is, however, June Qtr, which would fit with the day and month of her birth date, if not the year.

I wonder if the Devon Record Office could supply a copy of the bastardy document to which you refer in case it holds any further information. They would make a charge, of course.

I note that Irving Shapley’s mother is shown as MARION RANDALL on his death cert. On the death cert of ELIZABETH SARAH MONTGOMERY, mother’s name is RANDAL (I do not think she is Mary Ann’s daughter, but that of Bertha Veale who married James in 1868, and emigrated to Canada with him and their 2 small daughters).

However, I can find no trace of Mary Ann on the 1851, 1861 or 1871 censuses, nor a baptism.

Re: Who was Mary Ann Hexter?

Posted by Donald Brett on 23/1/2019, 4:48 pm, in reply to "Re: Who was Mary Ann Hexter?"

Thanks again - that's great. I believe you've gone a long way towards confirming my suspicions about Mary Ann 'Rendell' Hexter. I missed the 1844 entry in the old Index; I have submitted a 'Missing Birth Record' report to the GRO for Mary Ann Rendell so I shall be able to get the PDF certificate in due course. I have found that they are pretty good at updating the records.

Charles Hexter & Ann Rendle are my grtgrt grandparents and I have had Mary Ann provisionally included as their first child in my Family Tree (on Ancestry with Comments) for some time since I got the DNA results. If the 1844 birth is indeed her she certainly lived to a good old age - she died in 1940!

It is understandable that some members of the recent US families were not aware of James Shapley's first marriage since the 3 children were still quite young when Bertha died in 1876. And, of course, the children would subsequently have accepted Mary Ann as their mother anyway.

This was Mary Ann Hexter!

Posted by Donald Brett on 1/2/2019, 1:16 pm, in reply to "Re: Who was Mary Ann Hexter?"

We now have the evidence from Mary Ann's Birth Certificate that she was the daughter of unmarried Ann Rendell/Rendle. Her birth date of 11 June was correctly stated by her throughout her life but she had added 3 years, presumably so that this did not precede her parents' marriage.
With thanks to Karen Newman for providing a second pair of eyes to spot a missing Index entry!

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