Elizabeth Eliza Tester (1865 - 1935)

Elizabeth Eliza Tester was my great great grandmother on my maternal side. Born in the March Qtr of 1865 and baptised on the 16 July 1865 in Buxted, Sussex, she was the eleventh of twelve known children born to Luke Tester and Sarah Marchant.

On the 1871 census she is living with her parents and three of her siblings at Little Warren, in the parish of High Hurstwood in Buxted, Sussex.

By the time of the 1881 census 17yr old Elizabeth has moved on to Church Road in Tunbridge Wells and is working as a domestic servant in the home of Richard P Hooper who is a grocer and wine merchant. This is so far the only time one of my ancestors pops up in the town where I now live. It's quite comforting to know that she walked on some of the same streets as  I do now. The street still has a quaint row of shops along it now so it's possible that one of them was the grocers that she lived above. A trip to the library is in order to determine that one.

In 1891 she has moved to Putney in Wandsworth, London and is working as a cook at 67 Richmond Road in the home of Joshua T Beard, a Solicitor. The other servant in the household is Alice Foster who appears as one of the witnesses on Elizabeth's marriage certificate to William Stuart(1859 - ) later that year on 20th July 1891.

On the 1901 census Elizabeth and William are living in the Porters Lodge at Primrose Hill Studios in St Pancras, London with their 3 children Edward, Florence and May. William is a domestic gardener and Elizabeth is a housekeeper. They also have 2 servants, a general servant and a nurse.

It was this census entry that was to pique my interest even more. Since I took a Pharos course last year on our victorian ancestors in the census, I can spend many an hour trawling round the neighbourhood of my ancestors getting a feel for the area in which they lived.

Whilst looking at Elizabeth and Williams neighbours, I noticed that a large portion of them were artists. 

Elizabeth (on left) with daughter May, 1917

Instantly curious, my next task was to set about trying to find out more.  Now a grade II listed building the 'Primrose Hill Studios' were built in 1877 for, and lived in, by artists. Built with tall, galleried studio rooms, with one large window, they would have been ideal working conditions for the artists. The lodge is said to have been built as servants quarters. This bit of information seems to confirm my suspicions that my Great Great Grandparents were employed as servants to the 'studios' and their gardens, and that the lodge came with the job. Among the artists that were living there at the time of the 1901 census were Holyoake Rowland, Cyrus Johnson, Edmund Caldwell and Charles W Bartlett. Unfortunately ignorant in the world of art and artists these names didn't mean anything to me, but after finding images of some of their work and speaking to my sister who has studied art and who actually had heard of a few of the names, I am fascinated with the thought of what it must have been like to work there. Did Elizabeth get to see them at work? Did she ever speak to them? Maybe even received a painting from one of them?

Ok, so I am getting a little carried away, but I love the idea that they got to mix with such interesting characters. In 1903 they had a fourth child, Marie, and by 1910 had moved to 49 Roland Gardens, South Kensington, London. William has written that he is a house porter, but overleaf says he is a housekeeper. Yet again, they seem to have taken jobs that came with an abode. Coincidentally there is also living in the flats a sculptor and painter named Reginald Edward Arnold. 

From as early as 1918, electoral rolls show Elizabeth and William have moved to 50 Paultons Square in Chelsea, London, so I'm looking forward to the 1921 census to find out more. This is confirmed by the fact that it was the address listed on my Grandpas birth certificate in 1929.  The last time that they appear at the address together is 1934 which helped to narrow down her death year.  I was able to discover an entry in the indexes for a Elizabeth Stuart dying in June 1935 in the registration district of Chelsea.