Person:Elizabeth Bent (7)

Childhood

Elizabeth Bent was baptised on 13th October 1782 at Luton in Bedfordshire. She was the daughter of a James Bent and his wife Susannah Sheffield, who had married the previous year at Shillington, a few miles north-east of Luton. Elizabeth was the eldest of seven children. The second child's baptism describes the family's abode as Ashwell Bridge, which is in the parish of Luton but a couple of miles south of the town itself (which is not labelled on most modern maps, but is at East Hyde village).

Adulthood

On 30th May 1803, when Elizabeth was 20, she married William Marshall, an agricultural labourer from Chiltern Green, another hamlet in the rural part of Luton parish, and very close to Ashwell Bridge. Less than a month after Elizabeth's marriage, her father James died of a fever, aged 57. The following year Elizabeth and William named their first son James.

Elizabeth and William moved to Peters Green - very close to Chiltern Green, but just over the border into Kimpton parish in Hertfordshire. Most of their eight or nine children were born in Kimpton parish, except the youngest, Sarah, who was born in King's Walden (but baptised at Kimpton). In 1826, Elizabeth died, aged 43. She was buried at Luton on 15th March 1826, although the burial record notes that she was from King's Walden.

The 1841 census finds Elizabeth's widower William and some of their children living at Diamond End in King's Walden parish, which is extremely close to Peters Green and therefore probably where the family had moved just before Elizabeth's death.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Church of England. Parish registers of St Mary, Luton, 1603-1944. (Bedford: Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Record Service).

   Baptized in the year 1782 / Oct 13 Elizabeth Daug[hter] of James Benteman & Susanna

   The baptism has been linked to the adult Elizabeth Bent who married William Marshall on the basis that it is at about the right time to match the age quoted when Elizabeth died, and is in the same parish that she was living in at the time of her marriage. Although the name given here is Benteman rather than Bent, subsequent children of James and Susannah at Luton give the surname Bent. Moreover, the baptism of the next child, William, in 1785, gives the family's abode as Ashwellbridge, which is very close to Chiltern Green where Elizabeth's husband William Marshall was from. Finally, the adult Elizabeth named her first son James in 1804, when the James Bent father of the Elizabeth baptised in 1782 had died in 1803.

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

   BURIALS in the Parish of Luton in the County of Bedford in the Year 1826
   No.	Name	Abode	When buried	Age	By whom the Ceremony was performed
   886	Elizabeth Marshall	King's Walden	March 15th	43	Henry Jinny? Off[iciatin]g Min[iste]r