One of the many brick walls that I have is figuring out who the parents of Mary Potter Hickmott are. Mary Potter was born sometime between 1794 and 1801 (most likely before 1797) in England. I know this from several census records starting with the 1841 census for Horsmonden, Kent, England.

The Potter surname is confirmed from a marriage index (no image of the original is found online – just an index, which of course could be wrong).

When I first saw the 1841 census and saw there was a James Potter living with the Hickmotts, and that he was aged appropriately to be a brother of Mary, it turned me onto the name. So, combined with the marriage record, I’m fairly certain of the surname Potter.

So, who were Mary and James Potter’s parents? Darned good question. I still don’t know. Given that I know the Hickmotts were in Horsmonden for a number of years prior to this, it stands to reason the Potters may also be from there. However, there isn’t a record for a baptism of a Mary or James Potter in the 1790-1810 timeframe. So, I expanded my search to the surrounding area. I found a few possibilities – but not all of the parents are recorded, and of the ones that are recorded, there isn’t one couple that stands out as the possible parents of Mary and James (they all have different parents). There’s one baptism for a Mary Potter that catches my eye – but I discount it because the baptism date is my birthday (obviously different years) – so I think it catches my eye only because of that. Of course, it is certainly possible that Mary and James are not siblings – but close cousins (or not even related – just a coincidence of same surname). However, I tend to think that if something happened to James’ wife and he ended up a single parent of a young girl, that a female family member would step in to help out for a bit – which is why I hold the belief they were siblings.

This is one puzzle that may go unsolved….