Elizabeth Mary Preston (1870-1906)

Elizabeth was the youngest child of James Money Preston and Hannah Horn. Registered at birth as ‘Elizabeth Mary P Money’, she reverted to the single family name of Preston at the time of her marriage to George Elderfield. Her father, James Preston Money, seems to have been given the two surnames of his parents to create a double barreled surname more commonly associated with the middle classes, a practice not uncommon in the Victorian era.

When Elizabeth was only 7 months old, her father James died at a young age and her mother continued to raise the small family by herself. By 1891 Elizabeth had left the family home and was in service in Enfield. According to the census of that year, she was a cook living in Westmore House in Greenstreet, Enfield, the home of William Cocks, the owner of a draper warehouse.

Living nearby in Westmore House Lodge, possibly part of the estate, was James Elderfield, a gardener who had moved his family down to Enfield from Oxfordshire. It was his son, George, who later married Elizabeth.

It is reasonable to suggest that their first meeting took place in Enfield although there is a chance that they met in the Oxfordshire area considering the locality of where they were both born and lived. If this were indeed the case, we can only assume that either James or Elizabeth recommended the other for employment or fate reunited George and Elizabeth in Enfield.

It is more likely, however, they met in Enfield. George was working as a funeral laborer in 1891 and Elizabeth, in addition to cook, as a funeral servant. It is possible they were with the same employer and it was through their line of work that they met.

They married in 1892 and a year later saw the arrival of their daughter, Ethel Bessie. Where this young family set up home is unknown, however three years later it had expanded with the arrival of Constance Nellie.

It is around this time that Elizabeth contracted tuberculosis and the family may have broken up as a consequence. According to the 1901 Census, Elizabeth was back home in Eynsham, Oxfordshire, living with her mother who had since remarried, George was living with his parents and brothers in Enfield, whilst their two daughters were living with Elizabeth’s sister, Ellen Walker and her daughter Martha, also in Eynsham. It was to be cousin Martha who later brought up Ethel and Connie. George, whose marital status on the 1901 census is ‘single’, may have stayed in Enfield for the work and sent his family back to the cleaner air of Oxfordshire, a considered cure for tuberculosis at that time.

Elizabeth died of chronic tuberculosis and heart failure in 1906. Her two young daughters remained with cousin Martha and grew up in Oxfordshire.