Life
Mary's background was Scottish through Ireland. Her father died shortly after the ship landed in Boston, and her mother remarried to James Clarke prior to settlement in Londonderry.
During the voyage to the United States the ship (reputedly called "The Wolf") was taken over by pirates who threatened to loot the ship and sink it with all on board. When the pirate captain heard the cry of a newborn baby he went below to discover Mrs. Wilson holding the child. He told Mrs. Wilson to name the baby Mary and he would spare all on board and depart the ship which she agreed to. On leaving the ship, the pirate threw over a bolt of green brocade cloth that he said was to be used by Mary on her wedding day. While Mary did in fact wear the brocade, she may not have been the first to do so, as when her mother remarried the cloth may have been used on that occasion as well.
Mary and James Wallace were married for 39 years, until October 30, 1781, when James died in Londonderry and was buried in the Hill Burying ground there. In 1798 Mary came to live with her son William at his home in Henniker. Ocean Born Mary died on February 13, 1814, aged 93. She is buried in the Center Burying Ground in Henniker. Her sons and son in law were all prominent men in New Hampshire.
Ocean Born Mary was described as being quite tall, red haired with bright eyes, elegant in her manners, resolute and determined, of strong mind, quick of comprehension, sharp in her conversation, with a strong brogue and full of humor.
Pieces of the gown she married in are scattered in various places including the New Hampshire Historical Society. The folk song, "Ocean-Born Mary," by Neptune's Car was inspired by Mary's story.
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“It would be some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the midst of an outward civilization, if only to learn what are the gross necessaries of life and what methods have been taken to obtain them.”
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“It is, in both cases, that a spiritual life has been imparted to nature; that the solid seeming block of matter has been pervaded and dissolved by a thought; that this feeble human being has penetrated the vast masses of nature with an informing soul, and recognised itself in their harmony, that is, seized their law. In physics, when this is attained, the memory disburthens itself of its cumbrous catalogues of particulars, and carries centuries of observation in a single formula.”
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