Fifth Generation - Mary Petyt       

      Edward Harrison’s mother Mary Petyt had married his father Thomas Harrison, a widower, as his second wife on 18 May 1780 in Skipton [1] .

       Mary Petyt was the second daughter of Anthony Petyt and Mary Heelis and was christened on 7 May 1762 in Skipton [2] . She was the eldest surviving child of this couple as her older sister Margaret had died at the age of two months [3] . Her younger sister Anne arrived when Mary was three years old and survived to adulthood [4] . However, at five years of age Mary would have seen her little brother John die before he had reached his first birthday [5] . Her next brother Anthony also died before he reached his second birthday [6] .  In 1777 Mary’s last siblings arrived, twins John and Elizabeth [7] . However, little John did not survive a month and was buried on 29 September 1777 in Skipton parish church [8] . By the age of fifteen, Mary had seen three brothers die, and one sister had died before she was born. Only Mary and her two sisters survived out of a family of seven children.

       Mary’s father, Anthony Petyt, was a yeoman of Crookrise near Thorlby, and Deerstones near Bolton Abbey [9] . As there was, no son to inherit any lands that Anthony held it seems that the inheritance was divided equally amongst the three daughters. Mary’s sister Ann Petyt had married Michael Downs who is recorded as farming None-go-Bye Farm and Crookrise [10] . It is interesting to note that None-go-bye was probably the site of an Inn, although perhaps it was also a hunting lodge [11] .  Mary’s youngest sister Elizabeth married a Thomas Green who is described in Addingham Parish registers as a farmer of Deerstones [12] . Mary’s husband, Thomas Harrison, may also have farmed at Crookrise, and may have given the lands to his eldest son John Harrison by his first marriage [13] . It is, however, not certain how these lands were held [14] .

       As the daughter of a Yeoman farmer, Mary would have been used to the hard work required on a smallholding. This would have been necessary training for her married life with Thomas Harrison. Mary Petyt married Thomas Harrison at the age of eighteen and became a mother by her twentieth year. In addition to bearing Thomas Harrison eight children, she also cared for his four other children by his first marriage [15] . 

       Mary died on 27 July 1806 in Skipton, aged forty-four, and was buried on 29 July 1806 in Skipton Parish Church.