Elizabeth Greenman

The Life of Elizabeth Greenman (1834 - 1927)

By her great-great-great-grandson, Oliver Moules

Elizabeth Allen was born in 1834, in the village of Box in Wiltshire. Not much is known about her early life or family. She was baptised in Box on the 22nd of June 1834, and her parents are listed as James and Mary Allen. They were living at "the quarries" in Box, and James was working as a labourer. When Elizabeth was a very young girl, both of her parents died. She was sent away to Bath where she was raised in the workhouse at 12 Walcot Parade, which held roughly 100 orphaned girls. Elizabeth would have had a hard and unpleasant childhood growing up in the workhouse. She was later trained to be a domestic servant, and left the workhouse around the age of 16 to become employed as one.

In 1850, Elizabeth left the workhouse and moved to Bathampton, where she became employed as a servant in the household of John Popham Sainsbury, a wine merchant. Elizabeth was one of three servants, alongside Jane Bowles and Catherine Nickson, who she would have shared sleeping quarters with. Elizabeth's working day was long and tiring: the day would start by Elizabeth fetching clean clothes for the women in the household (Sainsbury's five daughters). Elizabeth would then spend the next few hours cleaning. Once the cleaning was done she would then go around the house and do various jobs such as making the beds and dusting the furniture and various ornaments. Finally, Elizabeth would work together with Jane and Catherine to do the laundry for the whole house. Elizabeth worked in the Sainsbury household for several years before she started courting Henry "Harry" Greenman in the 1860s.

Harry Greenman was a young man from Elizabeth's hometown of Box. Like many living in Box during this period, Harry worked as a quarryman, mining bath stone in the local quarry. He was seven years younger than Elizabeth. Harry and Elizabeth married on the 27th of May 1866, at the St. Thomas a Becket Church in Box. After their wedding, Elizabeth and Harry moved into a house in Boxfields. It was here that they had their seven children:

• George Henry Greenman on the 28th of February 1867
• Kate Elizabeth Greenman on the 30th of April 1868
• Isaac William Greenman on the 26th of October 1869
• Herbert Harry James "John" Greenman on the 24th of January 1872
• Ellen Louisa Greenman in 1874
• Alfred Frank Greenman on the 4th of December 1875
• Emily Caroline Greenman on 1st of January 1877

Elizabeth spent these years as a housewife whilst Harry worked as a quarryman. The Greenmans would often have several of Harry's fellow quarrymen to living with them - at the time of the 1871 census two quarrymen, Job Baker and John Butler, were listed as "lodging" with the Greenmans. Around 1880 the family moved from Boxfields to Woodstock House, a house on Mill Lane in Box. Over the next few years Elizabeth and Harry's eldest children began moving out - with George and Isaac both joining the army in the mid 1880s. Tragedy struck the family in 1886, when Elizabeth's daughter, Ellen, died suddenly when she was only 12 years old.

In the 1890s Elizabeth helped care for Harry's elderly parents, Isaac and Charlotte Greenman, who were both in their 80s. Isaac died in 1895, age 86, and Charlotte died later that year age 82. Elizabeth and Harry's first grandchild, Ellen Amelia Greenman, was born on the 23rd of January 1896 to their son George, when Elizabeth was 61. Elizabeth and Harry would have 20 grandchildren in total, the youngest of which was born when Elizabeth was 86 years old, in 1920.

In the early 1890s Elizabeth and Harry moved from Mill Lane to Washwells. Harry, who by this point had been a quarryman for almost 40 years, became Foreman of the Box quarry around this time. After celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in 1906, Elizabeth and Harry moved to Henley, where they lived next door to their son Herbert Harry James "John" Greenman. At the time of the 1911 census, Elizabeth and Harry were both in their 70s. Harry had retired from quarrying and instead was working as a general labourer. Their son, John, was living next-door, with his wife Annie Lucy Wootten and their two young children: Arthur William John Greenman and Margaret Lucy Greenman.

Shortly after the 1911 census, Harry began suffering with Alzheimer's disease. As Harry's health deteriorated he was cared for by both Elizabeth and her daughter-in-law Annie Wootten. In May 1913 Harry was diagnosed with "retention of urine." Then, in October, Harry was discovered to have developed gout in his legs. Harry died on the 2nd of November 1913, at the age of 72. After Harry died, Elizabeth became heavily reliant on John and Annie. In 1914 World War I broke out across Europe. John, who was a veteran of The Second Boer War, was called up to fight in WWI as well. Around 1916 or 1917 John was injured in the neck with shrapnel and sent home. Elizabeth lived to see the war end in 1918.

Elizabeth became a great-grandmother for the first time upon the birth of Gwendoline Errington, on the 30th of January 1919, when Elizabeth was 84. Later that year, Elizabeth's daughter, Kate, died at the age of 51. Three years later, John died of cancer at the age of 50. In 1923, Elizabeth was diagnosed with cancer herself - cancer of the esophagus. Due to Elizabeth's advanced age, being 89 years old at the time, it was decided that an operation would be too risky. Instead, Elizabeth just continued to live with the cancer under the care of her widowed daughter-in-law, Annie.

In 1924 Elizabeth celebrated her 90th birthday. Later that year, Annie re-married to Edwin Bow and moved from Henley to Valens Terrace. Elizabeth's advanced age and ongoing health problems meant she could no longer continue to live at Henley alone, so she moved in with her youngest daughter, Emily, who was living on Devizes Road in Box. Elizabeth lived here for the rest of her life. She died in her daughter's house on the 25th of February 1927, age 92. She was buried in Box Cemetery, beside her husband Harry.

Elizabeth's long life spanned the reigns of 4 British monarchs and 32 British Prime Ministers. Many of Elizabeth's descendants also lived long lives - her daughter, Emily, died in 1970 age 93 and her granddaughter Nellie Moules (daughter of John) died in 2010 age 99.