Eliza Lucy CURTIS (1840-1923)

Name:	Eliza Lucy CURTIS
Sex:	Female
Father:	Job Jeffrey SALTER (1820?-1895)
Mother:	Emma Louisa CURTIS (1820- )

Individual Events and Attributes

Birth	11 May 1840	Billericay,Essex1
Death	1923 (age 82-83)	Plumstead,Kent2

Marriage

Spouse	John COLLINS (1833-1910)
Children	Alice Eliza COLLINS (1863-1953)
	Emily Elizabeth COLLINS (1866-1951)
	John Henry COLLINS (1869-1940)
	James Edward COLLINS (1878-1956)
Marriage	5 Jun 1862 (age 22)	St Margaret's Plumstead

Individual Note

Eliza's grandaughter Ethel Alice Shipman wrote a family memoir in 1970, from which the following extract is taken:

"Eliza was born at Billericay, Essex, 11 May 1840. Her father* and mother died (TB?) when she was a small child and she was brought up by her uncle, William (sic) Curtis, and his wife. He was a builder who also kept a few pigs, chickens, etc. He lived in an old house in the High Street which I remember seeing in my childhood. Eliza Lucy went to a Dame School at the age of five and learned to read, write, do simple arithmetic and much scripture (by heart). her aunt taught her to sew and knit and do very neat darns. when she was seven her uncle decided that she had enough education for a girl and she left school and helped her aunt in the house. By this time her uncle and aunt had three children younger than Eliza Lucy who helped to look after them. She also used to look after the hens and feed the pigs ... When she was 15 or 16 she left Billericay and went to live with a sister of William Curtis's wife who lived in Plumstead, who became known as the formidable 'Auntie Barnes'.

"(Her lodger John Collins) and Eliza Lucy fell in love and when Eliza Lucy was 21 and John Collins 28, and earning what was considered a good salary in those days (£1 a week) they were married in St Margaret's Church Plumstead Common. They had four children, Alice Eliza born 1863 (my mother), Emily Elizabeth born 1866 (Auntie Emmy), John Henry born 1869 (Uncle Jack) and James Edward born 1875 (Uncle Eddie)."

* Eliza's real father, as per her birth certificate, was a young Billericay tradesman, Job Jeffrey Salter, and in 1841 little Eliza and her mother Emma were living with the elderly William Curtis on Billericay High Street. When Emma and William both died, Eliza was taken in by her uncle Samuel (not William) Curtis and his wife Elizabeth, whose elder sister Honor Emberson became the "Auntie Barnes" of Raglan Road Plumstead.

Sources

1	"Eliza Lucy Curtis birth, 11 May 1840 Billericay".

2	"Letter from Daphne Shipman".