Person:Elizabeth Briden (1)

Elizabeth Briden's origins have yet to be established. Her burial record suggests she was born around 1755. Her first confirmed sighting is in July 1775 when banns of marriage were read at Caddington in Bedfordshire for her and a carpenter named John Puddephatt. However, they did not marry straight away after the banns were read. Instead there was a delay of over three years before they married (and their banns had to be read again). By the time they did marry, Elizabeth had moved to Kimpton, a few miles east of Caddington, and they married there.

After their marriage Elizabeth and John returned to Caddington, where they had seven children baptised between 1781 and 1798.

Elizabeth and John's eldest two sons both married in 1803, and they became grandparents later that year when their son Jeremiah's son Jeremiah was born.

In 1831 Elizabeth and John's granddaughter Sophia (their son Jeremiah's daughter) married, and they became great grandparents in 1832.

In August 1836 John wrote his will. He described himself as a carpenter of Felden Bottom. Felden Bottom was the name for the area between Aley Green and Lower Woodside in the part of Caddington parish then in Hertfordshire. John left everything to Elizabeth, but with the stipulation that a loan he had made to their son Peter of £290 should be allowed to continue - this was presumably to avoid Peter suddenly having to repay a large debt on John's death.

John was buried at Caddington on 19th February 1837. He was 82 years old. He and Elizabeth had been married for 58 years. Elizabeth survived him by less than seven months, being buried at Caddington on 3rd September 1837.

1.   Deaths index, in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).

   d. Elizabeth PUDDEPHATT, September Quarter 1837, Luton Registration District, Volume 6, page 61

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Burials register, in Church of England. Caddington Parish Registers. (Bedford: Bedfordshire Record Office).

   BURIALS in the Parish of Caddington in the County of Bedford in the Year 1837
   No.	Name	Abode	When buried	Age	By whom the Ceremony was performed
   777	Elizabeth Puddephat	Pipers Bottom	Sept[ember] 3	82 [1754/5]	W. Mellard, Vicar