She was the daughter of Richard Maris, a baker and maltster in the city, and his second wife, Elizabeth Brindley, who also had three sons and both came from middle-class dissenting families.
[1] In 1730 she was sent to stay with Mary and Ebenezer Hankins in Upton-upon-Severn in Worcestershire (this move is thought to be because her brother George was mentally unstable.
)[1] Her husband to be, Philip Doddridge (1702–1751), was the principal of Daventry Academy, founded in 1715, which he relocated from Market Harborough to Northampton in 1729.
The eldest, Elizabeth or Tetsey (1731–1736), died just before her fifth birthday and was buried under the platform of the Doddridge Chapel in Northampton.
Of the remaining eight, four survived to adulthood: Mary, also known as Polly (1733–1799), who married John Humphreys; Mercy (1734–1809); Philip (1735–1785); and Anna Cecilia, also known as Caelia (1737–1811).