Elizabeth was born in Norwich and moved as a child to the village of Horsham St Faith on the outskirts of the city. She would probably have no memory of her mother, who died when Elizabeth was eighteen months old. She and her brother would have been brought up by her father’s second wife, who does not seem to have had children of her own.
The year after her father’s death Elizabeth was living in Hingham, about twenty miles away, where she was married to John Forke. She had three children: Jonathan, Ann (our ancestor) and Elizabeth who died as a child in 1784. The family had fallen on hard times; the little girl was buried at the expense of the House of Industry, in other words, the workhouse.
Mother of Ann Forkes and daughter of Thomas and Elisabeth Ellingworth
Baptised Elizabeth Ellingworth on 5 December 1742 at Norwich, Norfolk
Married John Forkes on 11 October 1775
No record of death found