Mexborough and Swinton Times June 1, 1928

Last Lundhill Widow

Death of Mrs. Mary Morris

The death occurred at Wombwell last night of the last of the women who were widowed by the great Londoner colliery explosion in 1857. She was 93 years old and she kept good spirits had been failing health for some time.

Mrs. Morris hall some remarkable records. She was  a great – great  grandmother ; she had given birth to and reared 17 children; she had over100 descendants living at the time of her death; and, most remarkable, she was one of three sisters who married three brothers.

Her maiden name was Shepherd and her first husband was Harry Hawcroft, who was killed in the Lundhill explosion. She was widowed at age of 22. She had one son at the time of her husband’s death: her second was born four months later.

Her second husband was William Morris, the old Darfield parish Church bellringer, by whom she had eight children still living.

Altogether she has ten surviving children, who include the two of the first marriage, one of whom is in Santa Barbara, California.

At the time of the explosion she and her husband lived in a little cottage near the hairdresser’s shop in Horsfield’s buildings, Wombwell

Mrs Morris was born in Tickhill, and at a very early age had to go to work in the fields – often during the pea picking season at two and three a.m.