Mary Edwards

https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/edwards-isaac

Soon after Josiah Martin assumed office, Isaac Edwards married as his second wife Mary Cornell, daughter of the wealthy Royalist merchant Samuel Cornell, a member of the governor's council under both Tryon and Martin. In a deed of 18 July 1772, recorded in Craven County 15 Dec. 1772, Samuel Cornell for five shillings sterling and "more particularly in consideration of love and goodwill" conveyed to his son-in-law Lot 105 in New Bern (on the west side of Front or Water Street, now East Front Street) and the "messuage" (house) thereon, "formerly occupied by His Excellency William Tryon." This was apparently the home embellished by the "Chinese Fence" with its "neet, light Airy & elegant look" so carefully described by Edwards to Colonel John Williams in a letter from New Bern dated 20 July 1773.

Although Edwards had been elected a representative to the Second Provincial Congress held at New Bern on 3 Apr. 1775, he died in January some three months before it convened, "having persued to the last the same undutiful conduct," according to Martin. His grave site in New Bern is unknown, but he may have been buried in the old Christ Churchyard.

Edwards was survived by his wife, Mary Cornell, and their two daughters, all of whom removed to New York with Samuel Cornell. A deed of 1798, filed in Craven County, records that "Mary, relict of Isaac Edwards," was on 10 Nov. 1798 living in New York City as were her two daughters, Susannah Edwards (later Mrs. William Wallace) and Rebecca Edwards Ogden (wife of David A. Ogden of that city). The deed further records that Edwards had died intestate and that his daughters were then selling some of his local property to James Reed Emery.

References

• https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/edwards-isaac cites
• "Edwards Family." The William and Mary Quarterly 15, no. 3 (January 1907). 53-56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1915757 (accessed July 29, 2013).
• Image Credits:
• [Isaac Edwards' signature]. From a warrant dated January 12, 1768. Image courtesy of Tryon Palace. http://www.tryonpalace.org
• "Isaac Edwards. North Carolina." A genealogical history. Columbia, S.C.: Printed by Ye Bryan printing company. 1900. 21. https://archive.org/stream/genealogicalhist00jone#page/n41/mode/2up (accessed July 29, 2013).