Maria was born in Warminster, Wilts, the daughter of Rev. William Dalby and his wife Harriet nee Byard. She was baptised at St Denys with St Lawrence church, Warminster on 9th November 1831.
Rev. William Dalby (Maria's father)
Her father was the local vicar. Harriet died at the vicarage in 1840.
By 1851, William was the rector at St Swithin's church in Compton Bassett. His son William Byard Dalby followed his father into the church. William Snr died on 3rd December 1861. William Jnr died aged just 34 on 16th February 1865. He had been admitted to Kingsdown Lunatic Asylum at Box in Wiltshire the previous May.
On 13th December 1865, Maria married Rev. John Finch-Smith at the church of St Philip and St James in Oxford. Two years later, it was announced in the local newspaper that Maria's sister had become a Roman Catholic.
By 1871, John Finch-Smith was working as chaplain in residence at Leavesden Asylum in Watford. John's next appointment was as vicar of Stropsley, now part of Luton.
The family later moved to Edensor near Stoke on Trent when John was appointed vicar. The name "Edensor" became the house name wherever the family moved to. John died on 29th November 1907.
Their son Ernest who was rector of Snodland in Kent died in January 1909 after a period of ill health. Maria and her daughter Katherine moved to West Malling, Kent with Dorothy Campbell Smith daughter of Maria's son Arthur Percy.
The family moved to Worthing at the beginning of the war in 1914, living at "Edensor" in Harrow Road. Maria died on 23rd July 1914. Katherine and Dorothy moved to Brighton soon after Maria's death. Probate was granted on 2nd November to Katherine Stuart Finch-Smith spinster. Effects £84 18s.