Mary was the eldest daughter of John   Tutty and Mary  Judge.    John Tutty , Bachelor and Mary Judge of Boxley married on 10 November 1785. JUDGE Family of Mary Bax grave in St Michael’s Church Smardenfrom ‘Description of Church and monuments’Mary Tutty had two brothers,  John  (1787) and Jasper (1796).   She also had twin sisters,   Susannah and Jane (1791).    Boxley is a tiny village 3 kms north east of Maidstone. St Mary and All Saints church at Boxley, dating from about 1100, was one of the stopping places on the Pilgrims’ Way to Canterbury, (a tradition that is continued to the present day), where refreshments and rest places are provided each day for pilgrims.[Boxley Church web site]       Mary was born in Smarden.   The name Smarden comes from the Saxon for 'butter valley' and 'pasture'. (Wiki}    Mary had two younger brothers, John (1787) and Jasper (1796) and two younger sisters, Susanna (1791) and Jane (1793).

St. Michael The Archangel Church at Smarden where Mary Bax was Christened and where her Judge relatives are buried. The church is known as ‘The Barn of Kent’ because of its unique ceiling.

​Mary's father John was a tailor and had a shop in Smarden.  When Mary was four years old , John went bankrupt (as did many tradesman and smallbusiness people at that time of  economic unrest).   Of interest is an advertisement in the Kentish Gazette June 4th, 1789.

“An old established and good accustomed tailor's shop with a very convenient house and premises situate in the town of Smarden and now in the occupation of John Tutty. The stock in trade consisting of woolen and linen drapery, hosiery and hats”.

The advert states that any outstanding money due to John Tutty should be paid and any claims on his business should be lodged forthwith. John Tutty’s business was offered for sale in Smarden by the Tutty family Solicitors Norwood and Smart of Charing.

The Bax family must have moved to Hythe about two years after the advertisement was placed. It would have meant that John Tutty could not trade as a tailor for 10 years after the bankruptcy was filed. 

Mary Bax’s sister Jane was born in 1791 in Smarden but christened in Hythe. Jasper was born and christened in Hythe.


MARY BAX’s MOTHER

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Mary Judge Tutty was a member of the Judge family of Smarden in the 1700s. The Judge children, all born in Smarden, were Joseph 1763, John 1765, Mary 1766 [Mary Bax’s mother], William 1768, Susan 1770, Elizabeth 1772 and Jasper 1774. Records show members of the Judge family lived  on farming properties around Smarden.

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Mary Judge Tutty was a ‘School Mistress’ Census 1851, (Mary Bax was later able to write to the Governor of NSW in her own hand asking for a block to build on thanks to her mother’s lessons).   In Boxley   there is a school house ,   (now a private residence) where Mary Judge could have been teaching there when she married  John Tutty in 1785.

The 1851 and 1861 Census shows Mary Judge Tutty as a widow living with her daughter Susanna in Hampton Grange Farm near Smarden. She died in 1862 aged 96 and she was buried in Smarden church yard alongside her Judge relatives.

TO BE CONTINUED