Elizabeth Whiting c.1806-1883

Parents:     Daniel Whiting and Elizabeth Archer (1)
Born:          c.1806 in Shudy Camps (1)
Baptised:   25th May 1806 at St Mary's Parish Church, Shudy Camps, Cambridgeshire (1)
Married (1) : Elizabeth Whiting, spinster, married Stephen Webb, bachelor, by banns on 28th November 1824 at St Mary's Parish Church, Haverhill. Witnesses: Mich. Farrant and Charlotte Whiting (2) 
Children:    John Webb, b.1825,  James Webb, bpt. 1827, Ann Webb, bpt.  25 Jun 1829, Susan Webb, bpt. 1835, Stephen Webb, b. 1840, Sarah Webb, bpt. 1832 d.1840, Sarah Webb (illegitimate) b. 1842
Married (2) : Elizabeth Webb, widow, of Castle Farm, Haverhill, daughter of Daniel Whiting (deceased), labourer, and John Rash, widower, labourer, of Castle Farm, son of John Rash (deceased), labourer, on 4 Aug 1856 at St Mary's Parish Church, Haverhill. Witnesses:  Daniel Whiting & Harriet Ship. (3)
Died:       31 May 1883 in Haverhill.

Bio:              Elizabeth was born in Shudy Camps in around 1806 and baptised there before her parents moved to Haverhill.  Elizabeth Whiting married labourer Stephen Webb in 1824. One of the witnesses was her next youngest sister Charlotte Whiting. Elizabeth and Stephen had a number of children born in Castle Camps between 1825 and 1832. 

Previously, it was thought she might have been the Elizabeth who lived with Stephen Webb and died there in the 1870s. However, as Judy Stratford pointed out, the parish register images for Haverhill St Mary's which have come online recently via Ancestry show us that Elizabeth Webb, widow, daughter of Daniel Whiting, deceased, married John Rash at the this church in 1856 (3). Her first husband, Stephen Webb had died aged only 33 and was buried at Castle Camps on 5 Jun 1838 (10).

Knowing that she was a widow by 1856 allows us to link her with the 1851 census where we see Elizabeth Webb, widow,  46, living at Camps Green, and receiving parish relief. She has a daughter, Sarah Webb, born in Castle Camps, who was 9 years old(4). Sarah Webb had been baptised on 19 Sep 1842 in Camps Green, the illegitimate daughter of Elizabeth Webb. (9)

On the 1861 census, Elizabeth is now married to John Rash, labourer, and she is living with him at Castle Farm cottages, Hazel Stubbs Farm, Haverhill. Although she gives her birthplace as Haverhill, we can be sure this is her. Next door, her daughter Sarah Webb, 19, is lodging with James Shipp, labourer, and his wife Harriet, who was a witness at Elizabeth's second marriage. (5)

Around ten years later, John Rash died aged 74 in 1871 before the census was taken than year. (8)

The 1881 census shows Elizabeth as a widow, aged 78, living at Brick Yard Hamlet cottages, Haverhill Hamlet, with her son-in-law George Rash and his wife.  Elizabeth is shown as being born in the Camps, here. (6) 

Elizabeth Rash, widow of John Rash, labourer,  died in Haverhill on 31 May 1883 of chronic bronchitis, from which she'd been suffering for 8 years. Her given age is slightly out, at 81. Her son-in-law George Rash was present at her death (7).

Sources:      

(1) Cambridge Family History Society, Transcriptions of the Parish Registers of Shudy Camps. Baptisms at St Mary's Church.
(2) Suffolk Records Office, Bury St Edmunds, Parish Registers of St Mary's Church, Haverhill. Fiche 578/4
(3) Suffolk Archives; Church of England Parish Registers; Reference: FL578/4/12, Ancestry.
(4) 1851 Census, Class: HO107; Piece: 1761; Folio: 314; Page: 13; GSU roll: 193653, Ancestry.
(5) 1861 Census, Class: Rg 9; Piece: 1124; Folio: 107; Page: 36; GSU roll: 542758, Ancestry.
(6) 1881 Census,  Class: RG11; Piece: 1822; Folio: 30; Page: 56; GSU roll: 1341441, Ancestry
(7) GRO image of death record, 3rd Quarter 1883, Risbridge, Vol 4a Page 322.
(8) Death Register. 1st Quarter 1871, Risbridge, Vol 4a Page 280, Ancestry
(9) Cambridgeshire Archives and Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire Family History Society; Church of England Registers of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials; Reference: P34/1/5, Ancestry
(10) Cambridgeshire Archives and Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire Family History Society; Church of England Registers of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials; Reference: P34/1/12, Ancestry