Elizabeth’s parents, John and Elizabeth Pope had six children baptised in the Norfolk villages of Hedenham and Ditchingham between 1710 and 1724. Elizabeth was the next to youngest, one of the three who survived childhood.
She married John Hanworth in 1740; I can find none of his records but there was a very important Mr John Hanworth buried in Hedenham in 1739, just over a year before the marriage of Elizabeth and John. I am very tempted to think he was John’s father with no evidence whatsoever! This John Hanworth was a “forty-shilling freeholder” – i.e. he owned land which would bring in a rent of at least 40s a year – and thus was able to vote. To put that in context, there were only six voters in Hedenham, so he was definitely part of the village elite. However, our John Hanworth doesn’t appear as a landowner himself in subsequent years.
Elizabeth and John had eight children, including Mary who sadly died at six months old.
Probably Elizabeth’s child-rearing was continuous until her death. When her youngest daughter was still a child, her eldest daughter Elizabeth had a baby. We know that this Elizabeth never married and, in such circumstances, it was common practice for both mother and child to remain in the family home. The little girl, another Elizabeth, was six years old when Grandma Elizabeth died.
Mother of Elizabeth and daughter of John and Elizabeth Pope
Baptised on 27 January 1722 in Ditchingham, Norfolk
Married John Hanworth on 12 June 1740
Buried 31 July 1772