Written Out: Maria Gandy: Colonel Light's lady, Dr Mayo's wife

As a historian I disagree with the conclusion of the librarian Isabel Story that Maria Gandy (1811-1847) had been a former lover of Colonel William Light (1786-1839), because this claim is only supported by the rumours and gossip of Maria’s contemporaries and not by historical sources and the tradition of that time. A respected person like the surgeon Dr George Mayo (1807-1894), youngest son of the Reverend Joseph Mayo, would have never married Maria Gandy at the renowned Holy Trinity Church nine months after the death of Colonel William Light if she really had an affair with the latter. Neither were any man of her time prepared to be outcast because of the marriage to a woman with this stigma, nor would the clergymen of her time have ever allowed this kind of marriage at their most recognized Church. Maria Gandy like her brothers William (1817-1862) and Edward (1825-1902) had become the foster children of Colonel William Light after the death of their father George or William Gandy in 1836. If you want to know more, please read my article on the German Weblog.