Shep's Place Family Tree

Sometime after their wedding in 1868 Mary and Will sailed to England. Perhaps they had decided to resettle there, or simply to visit relatives. Mary wrote the following charming letter to her sister Emilie:

"Ashurst ‎[Kent, England]‎
The seeds in the smallest paper are forgetmenots those are all I can get, do not know the name of the other sort.

Dear Emilie,
I was glad to receive a letter from you it will not be the last I shall have to tell ‎[young brother]‎ Henry he must write & tell me how he is getting on, tell him if Mr C is offended I do not care as it is not very likely I am going to travel at present, I wrote to Mrs C but she has not condescended to answer my note How are ...and you getting on do you think about him the same as you used, don't be in a hurry to get married you sure will soon get old if you do, you take ma's advice, for I am sure she will not advise you to get married very young, be sure when you write again tell me if you have a beau surely there must be something to compensate for the loss of the cats you drowned I suppose you have Topsy home now, do you often go for a ride? I daresay you would like to see Willfred if you have not done so already, I should like to see him if I were at McVale we could take a walk up there. Tell Esther I am very cross because she named him Wm. about the name, he was praising it, & I said did not like it & then the first news in your letter was that Esther had named her baby that horrid name Have you made any friends yet at McVale? how do you get on with your music now have given music up for the present as the piano is in the parlour, they seldom have a fire there, & the room is so damp it makes me cough so, if I go there for a few minutes can scarcely sing at all. Susan Powell in her letter told me she scarcely ever saw any of you now. the S School seems to increase now all the people are turning Baptists you asked me how I like my new home & relatives, should like them very well if we lived separate With love from W & self
I am
Your affectionate sister
M Caffyn"

Sadly, Mary died from tuberculosis of the lungs on 21 September 1869 at Ashurst Mill, district of Tunbridge Wells, county of Kent. She was 21 years old. The death informant was Thomas Caffyn "In attendance Ashurst Mill." He was William's brother.

In the Register newspaper:
CAFFYN: on 21st Sept. at Tunbridge Wells, Kent,
England, of consumption, Mary Anne, wife of William
Caffyn and daughter of Mr. John Shepherd of McLaren Vale
aged 21.

In her parents' death album:

In Loving Memory
of
Mary Anne
Beloved wife of
William Caffyn
& beloved daughter
of
John & Harriette Shepherd
of Aldinga S. Aust
Who died at
Ashurst Mill
Kent England
on Sept 21st 1869

Mary Anne died of phthisis, or consumption.

Under a photograph of Mary's husband, William Caffyn, it says, "Supposed to have died either in Fiji or Queensland a few years after his wife." He actually died in Kent, England, ten years after Mary Anne's death.