RAYMOND, Elizabeth: 1810 - 1883
Elizabeth Raymond was born in Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, on December 2, 1810. She and Giles Membery (Tile # 10) were married in Lyme Regis and started a family. An account written by Elizabeth’s granddaughter records that for some reason her family did not approve and had nothing more to do with Elizabeth after her marriage.(1)
Amos Membery, the patriarch of the extended Membery family living in Dorset at the time, decided to emigrate with his adult children and their families. Sometime before 1840 they left southern England for the United States. The party included several of Amos' children and grandchildren, including Giles and Elizabeth and their children. Some of the family settled in the states of New York and Wisconsin according to records of family burials in both locations.
Accounts left by her granddaughter suggest that Elizabeth was unhappy in the United States and in due course, Giles, Elizabeth, their children Maria, Amos and Frederick, who had been born in New York State, as well as father and patriarch, Amos Membery, moved on to Adolphustown, Ontario, arriving there in 1845.(2) They purchased a farm on the northern shore of Lake Ontario from Captain Abraham Maybee, one of the original Loyalist settlers in the area. Three more children, Martha, Amelia, and Walter, were born. Frederick, Martha and Amelia all married descendants of original Loyalist settlers and remained to raise their families in Adolphustown. Maria and Walter moved on to California.
We learn a little more of the character of Elizabeth Raymond Membery from an account concerning her son Amos and his wife Margaret who had settled on a farm in Adolphustown. Amos and Margaret had twins Eva and Edith and a year later another child. Margaret thought she could not look after three babies, so Grandmother Elizabeth took Edith. After some time, Margaret realized that Edith liked her grandparents’ home better than her own so Margaret took her back. She kept her for two years but Edith was still so homesick for her grandparents that Margaret sent her back to them. The next morning, Grandmother Elizabeth arrived at the house with Edith and said she would not have Edith unless her father, Amos, would promise that she might keep her permanently. He promised and she lived with her grandparents until she was married.(3)
Elizabeth seems to have had very strong views on how to raise children. She sent her own youngest daughter, Amelia, to live with a friend thirty miles away in Kingston and this move enabled Amelia to attend a private school and to study piano and singing. Later, as the wife of D.W. Allison, politician and prominent citizen in Adolphustown, Amelia would be called upon to support her husband in his many activities.
Elizabeth Raymond Membery died August 29, 1883, age seventy-two. She is buried in St. Alban’s Anglican Cemetery and shares a tombstone with her husband Giles Membery, who died thirteen years later.
1. Membery Family Papers, held by Diane Davie, Adolphustown, Ontario.
2. Membery Family Papers.
3. Membery Family Papers.