Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

ELIZABETH NASH; 1810 – 1901

Elizabeth was born on 22^nd March 1810 at Aylesbury and she was baptised in St Mary’s church on 6^th May 1810. Her parents were William Burman (1759- 1834) and Elizabeth Burman, née Darby (1766-1850). She was the youngest of six children[1] born to William and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was first married to Thomas Rickard. The marriage took place in Aylesbury on 13^th June 1830. Thomas came from Berkhamsted and was a wood turner. Not surprisingly, the couple settled in Berkhamsted, living on the High Street. Elizabeth gave birth to two children, William in 1831 and Sarah Ann, in 1836. William sadly died in 1835 at the age of four.

In 1841 also living with Thomas, Elizabeth and five year old Sarah, was Elizabeth’s 75 years old widowed mother, two young apprentice dressmakers, Eliza Morton and Sophia Bunn, and 20 year old Robert Lindsey, a tea dealer[2].

Elizabeth’s occupation in 1841 was given as dressmaker and the two apprentices no doubt worked for her. Whereas today we are used to buying ready-made clothes “off the peg”, that was not the case in Victorian and Edwardian times. Clothing was made for the individual wearer. Cloth would be purchased from a draper and then made up into clothing by seamstresses and tailors. The poor who could not afford the cost of newly made clothing bought clothes from second, third, or fourth-hand shops. Dressmaking was one choice of occupation for a working-class girl at a time when choice of occupation was limited. Working conditions varied; at one extreme were those who worked as high-class court dressmakers, at the other extreme were those who worked in “sweat shops”, enduring long working hours for pitiful pay. Others, such as Elizabeth, worked privately, often from home.

Sadly for Elizabeth, having lost her son in 1835, 12 years later in 1847 her husband Thomas died leaving her widowed with a young daughter to care for. She was soon however to remarry. Her second husband was a builder from Leighton Buzzard, William Nash. William was himself a widower and had six children.[3] William and Elizabeth married at St Pancras’ Church in London on 6^th August 1848. William settled in Berkhamsted[4] and soon established a thriving building and construction business. William and Elizabeth had one child together, a daughter, Emma Gilbert Nash, who was born in 1851.

Although William’s business prospered, Elizabeth continued with her own dressmaking business. By 1851, her daughter Sarah Ann, then 15 years old, was working alongside Elizabeth, together with two apprentices and an assistant dressmaker who were all living on the Nash’s premises[5]. Ten years later, Sarah Ann had left the family home, but two of William’s daughters, Eliza, and Caroline were then working alongside their step-mother. Elizabeth had also expanded her business to include hats; Elizabeth and Eliza both described themselves as “Milliner & dressmaker.[6]”At some time between 1861 and 1871 Elizabeth gave up her work as by 1871 no occupation is noted against her name in that year’s census return. However, 19 year old Emma, Elizabeth’s youngest daughter, then living in the family home, had herself become a dressmaker.

The Nash family was sufficiently well off by 1851 to be able to employ a live in domestic servant. No servants were living with the family in 1861 or 1871, but a domestic servant was again employed in 1881, 1891 and 1901[7].

William died in 1899 and was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery. Following William’s death Elizabeth moved from the premises on the High Street where she and William had lived. She moved to 13 Chapel Street where she lived with a grand-daughter, also a dressmaker, and a house keeper[8]. Elizabeth died on the 27^th July 1901 at the age of 91 years. She was laid to rest with William