Sr Elizabeth Margaret

Electoral Registers can give us a more detailed picture of where an individual was living in between census years, which is particularly true in the case of Sr Elizabeth Margaret, who was a member of the Community in the early twentieth century. Professed on the festival of St John Baptist in 1901, she probably joined the Community around 1899. Born in Ramsgate, Kent, in 1871, Elizabeth Margaret Maxted was the daughter of Thomas Gibson Maxted and his wife, Mary Margaret Maxted. Married in 1869, both were in their early 40s and Elizabeth was their only child, as far as I can find. Thomas died aged 52 in 1880, and was buried in the Ebenezer Chapel in Ramsgate. His will was proved by his niece, Eliza, and brother, William. Eliza was the daughter of Thomas’ brother Edward, who died in 1852.

In 1861, Eliza and her older brother, George, were living with Thomas, William and their mother. Eliza seems to have stayed with Thomas after his marriage, as she is registered in 1871, with Thomas, Mary and Elizabeth, and again in 1881, with Mary and Elizabeth. She may well have been an important figure in Elizabeth’s early life. By 1891, she had left, as Mary and Elizabeth are registered alone. Why this was, I’m not sure, as I cannot find her in 1891. It may have been for financial or employment reasons; in 1881 her occupation is ‘clerk bookkeeper unemployed’. Mary was living on her own means, but there is no indication as to how much this was, or whether she could afford to support her niece. By 1901, with her daughter by then at Ditchingham, Mary was boarding with another family in Ramsgate, and died in 1906.

How Sr Elizabeth Margaret came to know about us, or why she joined, we do not know. Given that both her father and uncle were buried in an independent Chapel, the implication is that the family attended that Chapel. But she must, at some point, have become an Anglican, although to join a Religious Community would have been very much the opposite end of the spectrum from her Chapel background, and I wonder how her family responded. Of course, I have not seen any evidence that Sr Elizabeth Margaret, or her family, attended Ebenezer Chapel, beyond the fact of Thomas and Edward being buried there. That implies they attended in the 1850s, but it is quite possible that the family had become Anglican by the time Sr Elizabeth Margaret joined us. Whatever the facts, Sr Elizabeth Margaret joined the Community, and was with us for 27 years, until her death.

The census gives us a picture of where she was every ten years. In 1901, aged 30, she was at the House of Mercy; in 1911, aged 40, she was at Colegate Street, where the Norwich Mission House was based; in 1921, aged 50, she was back at the House of Mercy, where she was in charge of the laundry. The 1921 census is particularly helpful, as it shows where each person was working within a House, not just that they were based there. In that census, Sr Sara was Sister in Charge of the House of Mercy; Sr Elizabeth Margaret was in charge of the laundry, working with Sr Ellen Faith, a member of our Third Order. Also present are Sr Agnes, who was responsible for needlework, Sr Kate and Sr Emma, both of whom had general responsibilities with the girls. There were 26 girls present, being trained. At this time, the House of Mercy had a commercial laundry, and it would have been part of the girls’ training to work there. I think the system in 1921 was that the girls spent two years at the House of Mercy, so Sr Elizabeth Margaret would have had a regular influx of new people, as well as being responsible for the standards of the laundry. Sr Ellen Faith had been in the House of Mercy herself, so her support in this work must have been invaluable.

But what about in between the census? I do have electoral registers for most of the years that Sr Elizabeth Margaret was in the Community, although I have not noted every year. This shows that she was at the House of Mercy until 1907, when I assume she went to Norwich, and returned probably in 1912. In 1914 and 1915, she is at the Orphanage, and then from 1918 to 1926, she is back at the House of Mercy. I’m not sure how long she spent at the Orphanage, but without those electoral registers, it would look as though she spent most of her time at the House of Mercy, and we would not have known about her work at the Orphanage at all.

But doing this research often throws up complications. Our records show that Sr Elizabeth Margaret died on March 29^th 1926, aged 57, after 27 years in religion. Death records show that she died in the second quarter of 1926, aged 57. These confirm each other; the second quarter of the year starts in April, but given she died at the end of March, her death was presumably registered in April. But her birth record shows she was born in 1871, and the census data supports this; not only the data prior to her joining the Community, but that afterwards. If she was 50 in 1921, how could she be 57 in 1926? I could have found the wrong Elizabeth Margaret Maxted, but the census data for her Community life supports it being the correct one. Her birth record says that she was born in the first quarter of the year, so she is likely to have celebrated her birthday in 1926 prior to her death, but even so the dates do not match up. I cannot answer this; it is possible the records are wrong somewhere. In the end, it is not vital – frustrating, but not essential. We know that Sr Elizabeth Margaret gave 27 years of her life to God through the Community of All Hallows, and we can celebrate this, even without all the facts.

[Picture: House of Mercy, taken in 1950s, renamed by then as St Michael’s House]