Person:Elizabeth Pearman (2)

Elizabeth Pearman was baptised on 6th March 1757 at Walkern in Hertfordshire, daughter of a farmer called John Pearman and his wife Sarah. When Elizabeth was quite young the family moved to the neighbouring parish of Ardeley, where some of her younger siblings were baptised. The family would later be described as living at Luffenhall, a hamlet on the borders of Ardeley, Walkern and Clothall parishes.

On 19th January 1779 Elizabeth married a widower called Joseph Males at Ardeley. He was about fourteen years her senior and lived at Knebworth, a few miles to the south-west. After their marriage, Elizabeth and Joseph moved to Knebworth, having a daughter called Sarah baptised there in 1779 and a daughter called Mary baptised there in 1781.

By the early 1790s they had returned to Ardeley. Elizabeth died at the age of 35 and was buried at Ardeley on 12th September 1792. Joseph survived her by about 27 years. Elizabeth's parents also outlived her - her mother died in 1807 and her father died in 1810; his will left legacies for Elizabeth's two daughters and for her widower Joseph.

1. ↑ Church of England. Parish Church of Walkern. Parish registers, 1559-1963. (Hertford: Security Microfilms, 1968-1988).

   Christnings In the Year of our Lord 1757 / Elizabeth Daughter of John and Sarah Pearman March 6th

   This baptism has been linked to the Elizabeth Pearman who married Joseph Males in 1779 in Ardeley on the basis that one of the witnesses to their marriage was a James Pearman. The Elizabeth baptised at Walkern in 1757 had an older brother called James, who had been baptised at Ardeley in 1752. The sequence of children baptised in the area suggest that John and Sarah had their first few children at Ardeley, then had some children baptised at Walkern in the late 1750s and early 1760s before returning to Ardeley in the early 1760s. The connection is confirmed by Elizabeth's father John's will (Prerogative Court of Canterbury wills: John Pearman of Luffenhall, written 1808, proved 1810) which refers to a number of his children. Whilst this will does not name Elizabeth (who had died before it was written), it does make bequests to John's grandchildren Sarah and Mary Males and his son in law Joseph Males.

2. ↑ Church of England. Parish Registers of Ardeley. (Hertford: Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies).

   1792 / Sep[tembe]r 12th / Elizabeth Males