Mary Angela Holbrook was born in South Braintree, Massachusetts on 12 February 1839 to Moses Holbrook and Amanda White Holbrook. She was the youngest of their six surviving children. Moses Holbrook was listed as a farmer in the 1850 census on Granite St. Near Pond St , east side, in South Braintree. After completing her education, Holbrook taught school in Quincy and South Braintree. In 1869, she married Edward Seabury Edwards, a dentist, with whom she had two children, Edward and Pamelia.