Person:Elizabeth Warner (61)

Elizabeth Warner's origins are unknown. Her first confirmed sighting is on 14th January 1728 when she married Benjamin Hornet at Chesfield in Hertfordshire. Chesfield was a small hamlet which had once been a parish in its own right but had been absorbed into the neighbouring parish of Graveley in 1445. St Etheldreda's church at Chesfield was therefore a chapel subordinate to Graveley church by the time Elizabeth and Benjamin married there. Three years after their marriage Chesfield church ceased to be used completely and a licence for its demolition was granted in 1750. The demolition was only partially carried out and the ruins of Chesfield Church still stand in the 21st century.^[2]

After their marriage, Elizabeth and Benjamin's next sighting is at Walkern, a few miles to the south-east, where they had a son named William baptised four months after their marriage. They then moved to Shephall, a couple of miles to the south-west, where they had another five children between 1730 and 1739.

Elizabeth has yet to be traced after 1739.

1.   Church of England. Shephall Parish Registers, 1560-1935. (Hertford: Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies).

   Buried / 1787 / Dec[embe]r 28 Jane Hornett aged 85 [1701/2] Widow

   A possible burial - no evidence has been found from the Hertfordshire marriages to indicate that there was a Mrs Jane Hornet living locally prior to this, but she is in the same parish and about the right age to be the Elizabeth widow of Benjamin Hornet, for whom no burial has been found.

2. ↑ Hertfordshire County Council, Historic Environment Record: Ruins of Church of St Etheldreda, Chesfield, Graveley, accessed 28 Mar 2013