Handt, Mary (nee Crook) ( - 1844)

Born:

Wife of J.C.S. Handt, at Wellington Valley from 1832-36; eldest daughter of the missionary William Pascoe Crook

Career Highlights

Mary Crook was the eldest of the eight daughters of William Pascoe Crook, a veteran of the London Missionary Society's 1796 Duff expedition to the South Sea Islands. She married J.C.S. Handt on 4 July 1832 at St James Church, Sydney, shortly before proceeding to Wellington Valley, her husband thinking her a "useful addition" to the new mission. At Wellington Valley she experienced four difficult confinements and suffered from an unspecified illness which undermined her participation in missionary work. She died in December 1844.