This blog is designed to record the findings of our family history, mainly for the benefit of the family, and to document the dead ends, the breakthroughs and the journey.
I’ll post the family stories as I’ve written them to now, and I’ll be grateful to anyone who can add further information or pictures, or point out errors.
Particular thanks to my sister Julia and my cousin Mandy who between them have done much more of the work than I have.

Wednesday 14 November 2012

Elizabeth Webb 1814-1899


I have already written about the mysterious Mills family after 1851, but what of Elizabeth Webb, great great grandmother no 2, who married William Mills in 1832 in Wolverhampton, according to IGI.
Details are of course sketchy at this stage, but the 1851 and 1861 censuses give Elizabeth’s birth year as 1814 and her place of birth as Sedgley. According to IGI she was christened on 6th November 1814, and her parents were John Webb and Hannah Unitt who were married on 15th September 1811 at St Peter Or, Wolverhampton. IGI does not mention the church in which Elizabeth was christened but the parish church of Sedgley was All Saints.

We do not know what Elizabeth did, if anything for a living, as she did not work after her marriage to  William Mills who was a master whitesmith, as so many of our ancestors on this side are.
In 1841 this family is living at Sheepcot Wall Sedgley .

The couple were in Sedgley in 1851, at Dudley Road Sedgley with 6 children

William Mills
1811
Fire Iron Maker
employing 3 men and three boys
Born Sedgley
Elizabeth Mills
1814
Wife
Born Sedgley
Mary Ann Mills
1834
Daughter - Tailoress
Born Sedgley
Julia Mills
1836
Daughter
Born Sedgley
Elizabeth Mills
1841
Daughter
Born Sedgley
Miram Mills
1844
Daughter
Born Sedgley
Thirza Mills
1845
Daughter
Born Sedgley
Phoebe Ann Mills
1849
Daughter
Born Sedgley

 By 1861 they have two more children

Mils
Hannah
Daughter
 
1854
 
Sedgley
Mils
Sarah
Daughter
Unmarried
1857
 
Sedgley

 However Elizabeth is described as a laundress and William is not there. So, is William dead, as implied by Elizabeth being “Head”, or is he away, as implied by her being “married”? I’m guessing the former, in which case he died some time after 1857 and before 1861. I have been unable to find out for sure.
The family is missing from the 1871 and 1881 census (they may be leaving in a different area), but Elizabeth turns up in the 1891 census as a widow living with Sarah Emily and Joseph Hamilton in Roebuck Street. She died in 1899 at the age of 85.