Person:Elisamirah Davis (1)

Elisamirah Davis was baptised on 30th March 1777 at Luton in Bedfordshire. She was the daughter of Susannah Davis, formerly Outridge, and her husband William Davis, who had married the previous year at Ickleford in Hertfordshire. She was the eldest of their six children. At the time of her baptism the family was living in the hamlet of Limbury to the north of the town of Luton.

On 27th January 1795, aged about eighteen, Elisamirah married John Smith. Elisamirah and John had three children baptised at Luton between 1796 and 1801. Their son William's baptism in 1796 records that the family lived at Limbury, whilst by the time of their son James's baptism in 1798 they were in the neighbouring hamlet of Leagrave. Their only daughter, Elizabeth, sadly died as a baby when she was only four months old. Four months later Elisamirah died too, aged just 24. She was buried at Luton on 20th September 1801.

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

   Baptiz[e]d in the year 1777
   March 30 Elisamirah daug[hter] of W[illia]m Davis & Susana from Limbrey

   This baptism has been linked to the adult Elisamirah Davis who married John Smith on the basis of the unusual first name, the fact that the age quoted at the adult Elisamirah's burial points to a birth around 1777, the fact that there is no sign of the child baptised in 1777 having died young or married anyone else, and the fact that the adult Elisamirah lived in the hamlet of Limbury in 1795, which is the same hamlet where the child Elisamirah baptised in 1777 lived.

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

   Burials in 1801
   Sep[tembe]r 20 Elisamirah Wife of John Smith Decline Legrave Parish 24 years