Family Facts and Fiction: The Story of Elizabeth Elliott
By Sue Wilson-Roberts
TFHS Inc. Member No. 5187
Elizabeth was my great, great grandmother. We had been told that her family had come from Yarmouth in England, that her husband was William Howes and that the family had lived in America prior to their arrival in Sydney. A family Bible told us somewhat vaguely that William Howes died in Norwalk, Ohio, in either February or March of 1894. It also told us that Elizabeth died in the Sydney suburb of Granville on 23 July 1894. Poor Elizabeth! She must have come, newly widowed, to join her son Arthur who had arrived in Sydney in 1885, and died shortly after her arrival. Or perhaps she had come to visit her son, and never knew of her husband's death.
Strangely, we were unable to locate Elizabeth's death certificate, but a quick search of the indexes revealed that three of her sons had been resident in NSW. They were Arthur Agus [sic] Howes, Albert Amis Howes and Byron Cerrell Howes. Byron's death certificate revealed that he had died, aged 19 years, also in Granville, on 15 August 1886. William C. Ives, his stepfather, had registered his death. Stepfather? But his father and mother were alive and living in America. Or were they? This was the start of our search for the family facts, not the family fiction. This is Elizabeth's story.
Elizabeth Elliott was born on 24 June 1835, in Great Yarmouth, in the English county of Norfolk, the eldest of five daughters born to George Elliott and his wife Elizabeth (nee Amis). Elizabeth was thirteen when her mother died. A few years later her father remarried, also to an Elizabeth, and had three more daughters and two sons between 1850 and 1855.
Elizabeth Elliott married William Howes in Great Yarmouth around 1856. William was about ten years her senior, and had worked as a railway clerk. By 1862 William had become a coal merchant, a business in which he continued until he left for America twenty years later. Over the years in Yarmouth the family moved several times. Much of their time was spent living in the Rows of Yarmouth, tiny narrow lanes, just a few feet wide with houses on either side, mostly inhabited by fishermen working in the herring fishery. The Rows were renowned for the fishy smells that lingered in the area.
Elizabeth and William had nine children, Alice Elizabeth, born 24 February 1857, Emma Elizabeth born around 1859, William George born 28 December 1860, Arthur Agus born 21 July 1862, Frederick Golden born 30 September 1863, Louisa born around 1864, Albert Amis born 18 January 1866, Byron Cyril born 16 February 1867 and John Harper born 22 April 1870.
Perhaps Elizabeth and William had endured a stormy relationship for years, or perhaps the life of a wife and mother was too difficult, and the lure of seeing the world was too great. We don't know why, but by 1877 Elizabeth had left William and the family, and was living in London with William Ives, a seaman born in Great Yarmouth, but resident in NSW since 1855. By the time of his death in 1897 he had risen to the rank of Captain. He must have already risen to a high rank by 1877 as Elizabeth travelled extensively with him. By 1882, Elizabeth and William Ives had settled in Sydney.
Meanwhile, family life in England disintegrated. In 1880 Elizabeth and William Howes' son William died, aged 20, at Woodbridge in Suffolk. The same year Arthur and Byron were lost at sea, presumed dead, when working in the herring fishery from Yarmouth. Possibly John, the youngest child, had gone with his mother, but his arrival date in Sydney has not been possible to determine. Of all the children, only Frederick and Louisa were living with William at the time of the census on 3 April 1881. William described himself as a widower to the census collector. Presumably this was much easier than explaining his wife had left him.
Shortly after the census date William Howes left Yarmouth for America. It is not known how many, if any, of his surviving children went with him. During his years in Norwalk, Ohio, he worked in an apple orchard, as a gardener, and as a publican.
How much Elizabeth knew of the fate of her family over these years can only be speculated. Amazingly, Arthur and his brother Byron were eventually found, shipwrecked on an island in the Barents Sea, above the Arctic Circle north of Russia. With two other fishermen they had spent eighteen months living with local inhabitants who followed a traditional lifestyle. The American whalers who found them took them to the United States. We don't know how they found their father, but they joined him in Norwalk. On 5 December 1883 Arthur took out American citizenship. Less than two years later the brothers decided to join their mother in Sydney, working their passage as crewmembers on a ship from San Francisco, arriving in Sydney on 8 November 1885. Arthur married a Sydney born girl, Sarah Smith on 24 May 1887. Elizabeth paid the deposit on a house at Granville for them in 1888. This home remained in the Howes family for over a century.
Byron died a slow and painful death from cystitis, following ten months of illness, cared for by Elizabeth, less than a year after his arrival in Sydney.
Albert also came to Sydney to join his mother, but his arrival date is not known. He left to join his father on 24 May 1887, and arrived back in Sydney around 1891. He married Bertha Patterson in Sydney around 1897 and had two daughters, Kate and Essie, prior to his death from stomach cancer at Granville on 17 May 1916.
Elizabeth's daughter Louisa died some time between 1881 and 1894. Alice had probably died as a young child.
Emma was sponsored by William Ives to come from London to join her mother in Sydney in 1885.Her marriage to James Phillips in Melbourne and subsequent time in Victoria suggests she may have met James on the voyage. She had a son Arthur Byron at Hotham, Melbourne, in 1887 and a daughter Violet at Granville in 1895, before her death from TB at Granville on 16 December 1897.
Frederick was the only one of the surviving children who didn't move to Sydney during his mother's lifetime. Frederick arrived in Sydney as a widower, together with six sons and a daughter-in-law, from Aberdeen, Scotland, on 20 July 1914. His two daughters were by then married and remained in Scotland. On 3 November of the same year, and lying about his age to the tune of eleven years, Frederick signed up for war service from Liverpool in Sydney. He left his three youngest sons with his brother Arthur, and Arthur's wife Sarah. On 24 January 1915 Frederick died of malaria at Frederich- Wilhelmhafen (now Madang) in New Guinea.
The pull towards Sydney and contact with their mother was obviously strong for Elizabeth's children. Elizabeth died suddenly of influenza and bronchitis at her home in Clyde Street, Granville, on 23 July 1894. We located her missing death certificate. It listed her as Elizabeth Howes Ives. Sadly William Ives' nephew, who registered William's death five years later, never acknowledged their relationship.
Those events concluded what would today be common scenarios of marriage breakdown and world travel, but stories so unusual in their time. The family fiction would have been so much easier to explain than the family facts!
Research by Sue Wilson-Roberts and Em Howes.
This story was originally published in 2001 by the Tasmanian Family History Society Inc in My Most Interesting Ancestor.
The original introduction to this publication may be found here.