Biography

Mary Ann Gilles (1830 - 1838) and her sister Emma, [linked] were the daughters of Lewis William Gilles and Mary Woodley, formerly Horne.
The church register of St. John's states that the two girls were second and third daughters, although there is no record of a first child having been baptised.
Emma was buried on 10th May, 1834, aged 5 years, and Mary on 26th October, 1838, aged 8 years. The Gilles had five more children.

Lewis Gilles was noted in Launceston in banking and was the first managing director of the Tamar Bank, founded in 1835. He was also trustee of the Launceston Church Grammar School from 1838 to 1846, the period in which the school was established and eventually opened in July 1846. From 1834 to 1836 he was a churchwarden at St. John's Church.

In memory of the two deceased daughters, the Gilles caused to be erected a marble plaque in the Narthex of the church. The inscription reads:
A TRIBUTE OF THEIR PARENTS
TO THE MEMORY OF
EMMA JEANETTE AND MARY ANN GILLES,
DAUGHTERS OF LEWIS WILLIAM AND MARY WOODLEY GILLES
LAUNCESTON 1838.
'SHEW THY SERVANTS THY WORKS AND THEIR CHILDREN THY GLORY' PSALM 90TH: v.16TH

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