Mary Ann
Caudle, a 41 year old spinster of the parish of
Old St. Peter's, Preston, sang in the choir at
Brighton's Methodist Dome Mission where she met
23 year old Mr. William Moon and offered to walk
him home as his sister Mary hadn't arrived to
escort him.
 They married 6 weeks later in
November 1842 at Preston Church and her life was
transformed. She lived in a succession of rented
accommodation with her young husband and even
went into trade. Her embroidery shop didn't
succeed.
Mary Ann had
traded the prosperous home of her father, a
well-known Brighton surgeon for life on 5
shillings a week with Moon but her new life
clearly had its compensations.
The Moon's
first child, Robert was born in 1844 when Mary Ann was
43 years old. Her daughter Adelaide arrived when she was 45. It was at
this point that William Moon designed his
embossed reading alphabet.
Her epitaph
tells us that,'Mary Ann assisted William for many
years in his labours for the blind'. She also
raised her two sighted children to be full
participants in the family business from an early
age.
Mary Ann Moon
died on the August 14th 1864, age 63 knowing that
Wiliam Moon was considered to have made more
rapid progress in his innovations for the blind
than any one who had taken the cause in hand
before him. Mary Ann Moon is buried in Brighton
Extra-Mural Cemetery.
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