The family knew a local curate Rev. Alfred Gatty, D.D. from 1837. She married him on 8 July 1839 at St Giles in the Fields, Holborn, Camden, (after overcoming her father's objections) and moved into the vicarage of the Church of St Mary, Ecclesfield near Sheffield, shortly after, on the recommendation of her uncle. She lived there for the rest of her life. They had eight children. In 1848 she was introduced to collecting marine algae while in Hastings recovering from a breakdown. Her husband died in 1903.