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Mary bore four sons who reached adulthood (one by her first husband, three more by her second), as well as another who died in infancy. She also raised another four step children who came with her second husband. They had varied, interesting lives - merchant, patten-maker, preacher, printer, publican, sailor, soldier, surgeon, and of course as spouses and parents. MARY’S CHILDREN WITH SAMUEL PHILIPPS: Robert Howl Philipps (1788-1830) Robert Howl Philipps had in 1808

Mary Vickers had taken on her husband Joseph Vickers’ patten-making business following his death in 1808. The 1809 Baines Directory of Leeds lists “Mrs. Vickers, Patten-Maker, Briggate” (and notes her home address as St. Peter’s Square). Since her stepson, John Ash Vickers (“JAV”) was 17 when his father, Joseph, died, it seems reasonable to assume that JAV had already started to work alongside Joseph to learn the trade as a patten-maker; and that he continued to do so with

In 1818 the High Court of Chancery in London ordered the sale of fourteen (14) properties in Leeds city centre which belonged to Mary and Joseph Vickers, in settlement of a claim made against Joseph’s estate (note that he had died ten years earlier – Chancery court cases were a notoriously slow process, as satirised by Charles Dickens in “Bleak House”). The claim was brought by a London wholesale grocer (and future Lord Mayor), Chapman Marshall, presumably over a large unpai

Before Mary Vickers married Joseph Vickers, his first wife, Mercy Carr, died aged 38, less than a month after her youngest child, Joseph Cockell Vickers’, baptism. She was buried on 15 June 1796, leaving her husband Joseph – then 43 - with two daughters (Sarah Vickers and Harriet Vickers) aged 10 and 8, one son (John Ash Vickers) aged 5, and an infant son (Joseph Cockell Vickers) just a few weeks old. But through the marriages of an aunt and (possibly) a sister of Mercy’s,

Zebulun Stirk, born in 1782, was a Leeds-based machine-maker and an accomplished steam-engine manufacturer who may have trained under the great Leeds engineer and engine-builder, Matthew Murray. Stirk is a significant figure in the story of Leeds’ industrialisation, although he had perennial financial difficulties, and he had an interesting connection with Mary Randall Vickers. Mary’s son, Benjamin Randall Vickers (“BRV”)’s autobiography states “After I left school aged 13

Mary Randall Philipps’ second marriage was to Joseph Vickers at St Peter’s church, Leeds on Sunday 12th March 1797, just weeks after the deaths of her mother and one of her younger brothers. She wrote in her journal “…present [were] my dear affectionate sister Smalpage, my beloved faithful friend Sidney Clifton, and Mr William Richardson … of Leeds, a long and intimate friend of my husband’s.” Joseph Vickers had been born in Marr, near Doncaster, in 1753. Marr is an ancient

In 1801, Joseph Vickers, a widowed patten maker who, four years earlier, had become the (second) husband of Mary Randall, entered an additional line of trade in partnership with his brother-in-law, Joseph Randall, establishing a grocer’s and tea merchant’s business: There are multiple advertisements in “The Leeds Intelligencer” (a weekly four-page newspaper) between April 1801 and March 1804 for “Randall and Vickers, Grocers and Tea Merchants”. The advertisements are entert

Wesleyan Methodist Class Ticket Issued to Mary Randall Vickers, 1820 The Randall family were devout Christians and had been “awakened” by the Wesley brothers’ campaign across the country in the mid years of the eighteenth century: it is said that they had been among the earliest members of the first Methodist meeting place in Leeds, “Old Boggart House”, on Quarry Hill. Methodism was very strong in Leeds. Ryley’s “The Leeds Guide”, published in 1806, states that “[Methodist

Mary Randall’s parents, Robert Randall (1730-1796) and his wife Rebekah (née Flocton, 1734-1796) married in 1754. The oldest item in the entire Mary Randall Vickers Archive is a recipe book owned by Rebekah Randall, dated 1766, 'English Housewifry' written by Elizabeth Moxon. Book, 'English Housewifry' By Elizabeth Moxon, Belonging To Rebekah Randall The book contains recipes for food and drink, menu plans and instructions on how to set out food and drink for each season o

Mary married Revd. Samuel Philipps, by license, at St Peter’s Church in Leeds on 28th December 1786. Mary Randall Vickers Family Tree We do not know when or how Mary and Samuel met, nor how long they wooed before they wed. But it may have been some time; it is clear that she felt obliged to wait to get married. According to Benjamin Randall Vickers’ ‘Sketch of the Life of Mrs Mary Vickers’, “until the age of 29 she steadily resisted every offer of marriage from a convi

In Mary Randall Vickers’ lifetime, Leeds underwent vast changes and emerged as one of the most important manufacturing towns in the country. Three decades before her birth, Daniel Defoe had already described Leeds as a “large, wealthy and prosperous Town… The Cloth Market […] is indeed a Prodigy of its Kind and is not to be equalled in the World…. [Briggate] is a large, fair and well built street” which “was lined with a variety of dwellings; fine mansions often adjoining

It is her fortitude that sets Mary apart. She looks out at us from her portrait, both clear- and kind-eyed, but with a determined set of her chin: you messed with Mary (as several tried to do) at your peril. Mary Randall Vickers, who was married and widowed twice, inherited and ran two businesses whilst raising four of her own children and four stepchildren. Twice she went into business with partners who kept her money but not their side of the agreement; in both cases she we