Elizabeth (Lizzie) Rachel King

1847 - 1923  (76 years)

• Name	Elizabeth (Lizzie) Rachel King
  Birth	9 Jan 1847	Pettistree, Suffolk
  Baptism	7 Feb 1847	Pettistree, Suffolk
  Gender	Female
  Census	1851	Pettistree, Suffolk
  Village too small for street addresses
  Census	1861	Loudham Lane, Wickham Market, Suffolk
  Census	1871	60 Brewer St, Woolwich, London
  Census	1881	9 Brewer Place, Woolwich, London
  Census	1891	33 Brewer St, Woolwich, London
  Census	1901	57 Brewer St, Woolwich, London
  Census	1911	Rye House Hotel, Hoddesden, Herts
  Visiting William & Matilda Abel, proprietors
  Census	1921	97 Brewer St, Woolwich, London
  Death	25 Nov 1923	Woolwich, London
  Burial	29 Nov 1923	Greenwich, London
  Person ID	I62	Ash Family Database
  Last Modified	3 Nov 2025

  
  

  Father	John King,   b. Abt 1780, Hacheston, Suffolk
  Mother	Arabella Eliza Dougherty,   b. 13 Nov 1812, St Eustatia, West Indies d. 20 Oct 1872, Hadleigh, Suffolk (Age 59 years)
  Marriage	14 May 1832	St Margaret’s, Lee, London
  Notes	John was a widow when he married Arabella, who was 19 and pregnant. In an email to David Ash in 2007, Richard Branch wrote, ‘My Dad had the story that John King had had a previous marriage and family which had had been wiped out by a typhoid or cholera outbreak during one of his military tours of duty.’
  Family ID	F653	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	John Abel,   b. 8 Sep 1840, Hulme, Manchester d. 28 Jan 1915, London (Age 74 years)
  Marriage	19 Jun 1869	Woolwich Parish Church, London
  	John and Lizzie both married from 41 Wellington Street, Woolwich. The witnesses were John and Edith Abel.
  Children	1. Edith Mary Abel,   b. 2 Jan 1875, Plumstead, Woolwich, London d. 24 Aug 1957, Eltham, London (Age 82 years)
  Family ID	F24	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	3 Nov 2025

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 9 Jan 1847 - Pettistree, Suffolk Baptism - 7 Feb 1847 - Pettistree, Suffolk Census - 1851 - Pettistree, Suffolk Census - 1861 - Loudham Lane, Wickham Market, Suffolk Census - 1871 - 60 Brewer St, Woolwich, London Census - 1881 - 9 Brewer Place, Woolwich, London Census - 1891 - 33 Brewer St, Woolwich, London Census - 1901 - 57 Brewer St, Woolwich, London Census - 1921 - 97 Brewer St, Woolwich, London Death - 25 Nov 1923 - Woolwich, London Burial - 29 Nov 1923 - Greenwich, London  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  Lizzie was the youngest child of John and Arabella King. Her parents seem to have been an unusual couple. Her father was roughly 33 years older than her mother, who had been born on the tiny island of St Eustatia in the West Indies. He was a widower when he married her. Though Lizzie was born in Pettistree, where her family lived in the early 1850s, her elder brothers and her sister were all born in Woolwich, which is where she would eventually settle with her Manchester-born husband John Abel, probably in the late 1860s, taking a house next door to that of her brother Francis and his family at 9 Brewer Place. There is no doubt that Lizzie was born in 1847. Several censuses confirm that. We also have a record of a baptism in Pettistree, the village of Lizzie’s birth, dated 7 Feb 1847, of an Elizabeth King whose parents were John (labourer) and Arabella. What is odd, however, is that there is another record of a baptism in Pettistree dated 10 Oct 1844 of an Elizabeth King whose parents were also John and Arabella. This John gave his occupation as ‘pensioner’, which is entirely possible, given what we know of his history. He was 67 when Lizzie was born. His wife was 35. The simplest explanation would seem to be that John & Arabella had a daughter in 1844 who didn’t survive and whose name was given to the daughter who did. In 1861, the 14-year-old Lizzie was living with her parents in Wickham Market, within walking distance of Pettistree. Her siblings do not appear to have been with her. By 1871 she had married and was living in Woolwich, where she stayed for the rest of her life and where she and John Abel raised nine children. They appear to have lived in at least five different properties within a short distance of each other, very close to the Woolwich Arsenal where John worked. On the 1921 Census, Lizzie (74), widowed, was living at 97 Brewer St, Woolwich with daughter Matilda and her husband William Wren (see his notes); also John Alfred Abel and his wife Clara Edith and their 18-year-old daughter Irene Cecilia Abel, a grocery assistant in Plumstead. Lizzie died two years later, in 1923.