Maria Mitchell was born 14 April 1843, at Sheffield, York, England, a daughter of Hezekiah Mitchell and Sarah Mallinson Mitchell. Her family records indicate that she was born at Liverpool, Lancashire, England, and not at Sheffield, York, as her sister was born at Sheffield. As a baby she was christened in the Church of England.

In 1849, her parents and all of the children including herself sailed for America, landing in New Orleans in December.  They spent three days on the Gulf of Mexico, stranded in quicksand, it took five steamers to pull their boat off the sandbar. They arrived in St. Louis the 10th of January 1850 and stayed there two years. They then moved to Illinois where her father made the wagon they used to cross the plains. They left Illinois the first of May 1854 and started for Utah with two yokes of oxen and one yoke of cows.

They experienced many hardships, and saw a heard of buffaloes stampede. Maria was eight years old at this time and was baptized by her father in the North Platte River on August 26, 1854 and was confirmed by Captain James Brown, who was the captain of the company they were in and in which also was the Robellaz family.

They arrived in Salt Lake City the 29th of September 1854 where her father worked on the Salt Lake Temple for awhile, then was made president of Tooele Stake. Later returned to Salt Lake he engaged in farming where Maria worked in the field with him, driving the oxen while her father plowed the land. She also learned to card and spin wool and cotton and to weave it into cloth for their clothing. Maria was gifted in fine needle work, embroidering, dress making and millinary.

When Johnson's army came the Mitchell's moved to Lehi, and then up to Ogden.

Maria married Captain James Brown as his thirteen and last wife, 19 September 1861, in the Salt Lake Endowment House. The sealing was performed by Daniel H. Wells, with Brigham Young as a witness. Maria was a sister to Lavina Mitchell, James' eleventh wife. There are no known children from this marriage

After her husband's death in September 1863, Maria and her sister Elizabeth set up a little store on Washington Avenue, between 22nd and 23rd Street in Ogden, in their little home which was on the land Maria inherited from her husband James. She later set up a boarding house in Provo for a time.

Maria and her younger sister Elizabeth [born April 14, 1846] married Edward Gregory Horrocks in Salt Lake City, Utah on 4 June 1864, after the death of Captain James Brown.

Maria Mitchell Brown Horrocks and Edward had five daughters and four sons [yet to be located].

Elizabeth Mitchell Horrocks and Edward Gregory Horrocks had five sons and four daughters:.
Edward Hezekiah Horrocks, 1865-1940, md. Amelia Ann Bowman 1-16-1885
James Frederick Horrocks, 1867-1868
George David Horrocks, 1869-1949, md. Christine Rhenstrom
Mary Elizabeth Horrocks, 1872-1888
Ina Maria Horrocks, 1874-1926, md. Arvin Hamlin, Sr. Murray
Lorenzo Frank Horrocks, 1877-1950, md. Daisy Sarah Grames
Martha Priscilla Horrocks, 1879-1984, md. Ralph F. Snow
Laurence John Horrocks, 1882-1960
Adelia Horrocks, 1886-1968, md. David Hutchison

Edward married Ida Marie Johansson [Ida Mary Johnson] on March 6, 1873 in Salt Lake City.

The Horrocks moved to Provo in 1889 where Maria worked in the Relief Socity and was vice president of the Woman's Sufferage Organization there. She was an active member of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and the Mormon Batallion Organization. Later they moved back to Salt Lake. Her last days were spent happily in the temple and in visiting the families of Captain Brown.

[Maria Mitchell Brown Horrocks-- As a young girl (12 years old) she came across the plains to Utah in the James Brown Company. James (Capt of Company "C" in the Mormon Battalion and founder of Ogden) told Hezekiah that he would like to marry Maria when she got older. She married him when she was 17 (1859). He got his arm caught in a molasses mill in 1863, gangrene set in, and he died. They were childless, although I heard just recently that she was pregnant once but miscarried. The next year she married Edward Gregory Horrocks, who also married Maria's sister Elizabeth. Edward committed suicide in 1886, he hung himself in an adjoining orchard. (Depending on the story, he committed suicide because A) Maria was his favorite wife, but she had already been sealed to Brown; B) His 3rd wife Ida Maria Johansen liked to drink, and he was starting to take up the habit; C) He was having financial difficulties and his job as a store clerk would not support his large (16 children) family.) It is interesting that on Edward's headstone are 16 marbles, I think each one represents a child. (From D. Bruce Robinson. Found at: http://lythgoes.net/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I381&tree= )]

Maria Mitchell Brown Horrocks died 19 February 1923 in Salt Lake City and was buried in Ogden in the family plot of Captain Brown . See Ogden City Cemetery on Lavinia Mitchell page to locate Maria's headstone, located.at Position #9 on the map (G-6) .

Sources:

PAF - Archer files

 http://66.87.226.5/capt_j_brown/wife.php?wife=13

 http://www.brownhistory.org

Brown Book of Remembrance written by Hattie Critchlow Jensen and Loella Brown Tanner prior to 1948

http://lythgoes.net/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I381&tree=