Hi Lesley,
A few thoughts.
1. There is the following marriage in the IGI - Mary HENSON married John WRIGHT, 13 Jun 1831, Keyworth. It is tempting to think that these might be the parents of the Mary WRIGHT who, you say, was aged 9 in 1841 and living in Keyworth with William HENSON and Sarah HENSON; and who is 19, a School Assistant, and living with Schoolmistress Sarah in 1851. I guess you could order in the relevant parish film (with the marriage) to your nearest Latter Day Saints' Family History centre - but it probably would not have any further clues/information.
(I presume that Mary WRIGHT subsequently married Thomas RICHMOND, and is the Mary RICHMOND, niece, b ca 1832, who was living in the household of Sarah HENSON, Schoolmistress, in the 1861 and 1871 censuses. And that Mary died before 1881 when Thomas, a widower, and children Mary and Martha, are still living with Sarah.)
It is tempting to think that Mary (HENSON) WRIGHT was Mary's mother and that she died (perhaps in childbirth?) - which would explain why young Mary was living with William and Sarah in 1841.
2. There are LDS submissions (take great care!) in the IGI with the following information: William HENSON "of" Keyworth, born "about" 1771 (all that means, I assume, is that a record/s of him has/have been found in Keyworth, and that they have chosen an approx birth year of 25 years before the date of marriage), and that William HENSON married Sarah HOWARD 13 Dec 1796, Keyworth - I wonder where the submitters obtained this name and precise marriage date.
3. Do you have the death certificate of Sarah HENSON (presumably between 1881 and 1891)? Perhaps the name of the informant might give a family clue.
Of course, Thomas RICHMOND might well have been the informant. But perhaps by the time Sarah died, Thomas might have re-married and moved away. I notice that in 1891 he is in Nottingham (right age, right occupation, right birthplace) with a wife Ann b Keyworth; and FreeBMD has the marriage of a Thomas RICHMOND in Bingham (which included Keyworth) in the Dec qtr 1881 with an Ann EGGLESTON on the same page.
4. Incidentally, another reason why schoolmistress Sarah (if it were she) made a mark might be if she had injured her hand and was temporarily unable to write.
Though as has been suggested it could be the other Sarah HENSON who is around in Keyworth with her widowed mother Frances (and one has to suspect that all the Keyworth HENSONs might have been related).
That Sarah was probably the daughter of Richard HENSON and Frances RICHARDS who married in Bunny in 1823. A Richard HENSON and a Frances are recorded in the IGI as having, in Keyworth, Ann bap 1825, Sarah bap 1828, and John bap 1833.
5. I wonder whether there might have been something in the local newspaper about the death of Sarah HENSON - having been a schoolmistress for so long, she surely would have been well-known.
Also, I wonder if there are any records of Keyworth memorial inscriptions.
Well - just a few thoughts.
JAP
