Person:Elizabeth Arnold (85)

Elizabeth Arnold was baptised on 4th June 1750 at Luton in Bedfordshire, daughter of Elizabeth Arnold, formerly Stokes, and her husband John Arnold. The family lived at Newmill End, a hamlet in the south of the parish on the River Lea, near the border with Hertfordshire. Elizabeth appears to have been the second of seven children. In 1766 Elizabeth's mother died.

On 19th November 1770, aged 20, Elizabeth married a man named John Mardell. One of the witnesses to the marriage was John Warren, who the following year would marry Elizabeth's sister Mary. Sadly Elizabeth's marriage to John Mardell was very short; he was buried just six weeks later.

Just under ten months later, on 21st October 1771, Elizabeth married again, with her second husband being John Marshall. They settled at Chiltern Green, on the hill immediately east of Newmill End. Between 1773 and 1785 they had six children baptised at Luton, although their eldest son George died when he was only five years old in 1778.

In 1802 Elizabeth's daughter Phoebe died aged 19 of a fever. The following year Elizabeth died (of "decline"), aged about 53. She was buried at Luton on 2nd June 1803.

1. ↑ Bedfordshire Family History Society. Luton Parish Register Transcript. (Bedford).

   Baptisms 1750
   Jun 4 Eliz d Jn Eliz Arnold Newm. End

   This baptism has been linked to the Elizabeth Arnold who married John Mardell in 1770 (and then John Marshall in 1771) on the basis that one of the witnesses to the 1770 marriage was a John Warren, who in 1771 married Mary Arnold, who was the older sister of the Elizabeth Arnold baptised in 1750.
   
   Whilst there is another Elizabeth Arnold who was baptised at Luton in 1755 which might just about be plausible (who also had a sister Mary), is it considered that the baptism shown here is much more likely. Principally, this baptism specifies that the family lived at Newmill End - the same hamlet that Elizabeth's first husband died at and very close to the hamlet of Chiltern Green where Elizabeth settled with her second husband. The 1755 baptism, by contrast does not specify a hamlet (nor do any of the baptisms for the siblings of that Elizabeth), which implies that the 1755 baptism family lived in the town of Luton rather than the rural part of the parish. Further, the 1755 Elizabeth would only have been 15 when she first married and would have stopped having children aged 30, which seems less likely than the 1750 baptism, which makes her 20 when she first married and 35 when she stopped having children.

2. ↑ Church of England. Parish registers of St Mary, Luton, 1603-1944. (Bedford: Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Record Service).

   Burials in 1803
   June 2 Elizabeth Marshall decline 50