17.4 5xgreat grandmother Elizabeth Burgess (Wales line): (1766-1852)

Elizabeth Burgess is said to be ’21 years and upwards’ at the time of her marriage to Aaron Wales in 1791 at Holt. Both parties are shown to be ‘of Holt’ on the marriage license and parish register. We know from his ‘examination’ by the poor law guardians at Holt at the time of his marriage that Aaron Wales was originally from Redenhall with Harleston, and that his parents were from Carlton-Colville, Suffolk, resident at Redenhall at the time of his birth.

Elizabeth Burgess was abandoned by her husband by 1808 (and possibly around 1804, when their eldest son Jonathan died, aged 12). We hear nothing more about her until the 1841 census, when she is found, aged 70, living with her surviving son – my 4xgreat grandfather – Aaron Wales (b1794). He is working as a blacksmith at Burnham Westgate, Norfolk. This would give a birth year of around 1771, although adults’ ages were ‘rounded down to the nearest five years’ in accordance with instructions to enumerators, so she could have been born any time between 1765-1771.

Remarkably, she is still alive by the time of the 1851 census, still living with son Aaron Wales and his wife, their daughter and son-in-law, at Foundry Yard, Burnham Sutton. She is clearly identified as ‘mother’, a widow, aged 85 and born in Holt, Norfolk.

This would give a birth year of 1766. She died just under a year later, on 15 January 1852, at Burnham Sutton. 

Her death certificate shows that she died of ‘decay of nature’ (ie old age), at the age of 86, and that she was the widow of Aaron Wales, Patten-maker (a reasonable assumption by then, although we still don’t know when her husband died). The informant was her daughter-in-law Margaret Wales née Sporne, my 4xgreat grandmother. She was buried at Burnham on 19 January 1852.

A search for a baptism for Elizabeth Burgess (with name variations) in Holt around 1766 failed to find anything obvious. The closest possibility is a baptism for Elizabeth Burgess, daughter of Robert Burgess and his wife Elizabeth on 17 December 1766, at Horstead, Norfolk. Horstead is some 20 miles from Holt. I haven’t found any obvious burial or marriage records for an Elizabeth Burgess in Horstead to be able to eliminate this baptism. NROCat has a record of a will proved in 1802 of Robert Burgess, Farmer of Horstead; he was buried in Horstead on 9 April 1802. Did he and his family move to Holt, but he was buried in his home parish when he died? Or did they all stay in Horstead and this is a different family? Another brick wall.

For the sources mentioned in bold, see blogpost: MyRoots: Lesly's family history: Sources and resources: A quick view