Mary Curtis was a shopkeeper in London when her husband died. They had married 29 September 1782 at St. James, Westminster, London when Mary was seventeen years old. Their five children were born in London. After William died she sold his carpenter's tools and used the money to open a shop in London. Son Anthony joined the Royal Navy at 12 years of age and visited the Colony in the early days. He returned to the Colony on the ship 'Medina'. Her son Anthony Barnabas Curtis sent for her and her daughter (his sister) Poll Susannah, to come to the Colony. Anthony was a ship-owner and trader between Mauritius and the East Indies. He purchased the ship 'Fanny' in 1835. He was a merchant and importer. Mary lived in a cottage provided by Anthony in Fremantle until he died on 11 January 1853. She then lived with her son-in-law Edward Back at Fremantle and Rottnest Island. The cottage they lived in at Rottnest, is now known as Cottage K on Thompson's Bay. Conditions were very cramped so Captain Back her son-in-law wrote to the Colonial Secretary, to request that she be allowed to occupy a small room at Government House, Rottnest. In 1857 Edward Back and his family returned to Fremantle and Mary returned and lived with them. When she died she was the oldest person in the Colony. Her death was reported in the Perth Gazette 'Her death was not caused by disease or decay but from shock occasioned when portion of her dress caught on fire'. Mary Curtis died on 14 April 1861 at Fremantle. She was buried in the Alma Street Cemetery, Fremantle. Mary was a strong and courageous woman to the last, a truly remarkable pioneer.