Elizabeth Wetherill (1713-1799?) and Edward Peterson (1714?-1783).
My 7th great-grand aunt and uncle.
Elizabeth was baptised on 1 February 1713 at St Nicholas’s Church in Great Yarmouth, her parents being schoolteacher Thomas Wetherill and Mary Corpe.
Her brother William Wetherill’s will refers to her as Elizabeth Peterson and mentions her children but I’ve not found a record of a Wetherill marrying a Peterson. However, an Elizabeth Wetherill married William Parker in Caister just a few miles from Yarmouth – given as their home parish – on 5 June 1740. The marriage produced a child, Ann, but William died in Yarmouth in November 1745.
A widow Elizabeth Parker married Edward Peterson at St Peter Parmentergate in Norwich, Norfolk, and I believe that this is her. The ceremony was held on 15 January 1747 (recorded as 1746 in the old-style calendar) and together they had at least six children. Edward was a businessman, described in the newspapers as a salesman. The Norfolk Chronicle of 28 August 1779 carried an advert from Edward Peterson, an importer of “foreign spiritous liquors”, stating that he had opened a warehouse next to the Excise Office in Tombland, Norwich, where “every article in the liquor trade will be executed on the lowest terms”.
Edward died in 1783 and was buried on 1 August at St Gregory’s Church in Norwich, listed on death as aged 69. If the age is accurate, he could’ve been the Edward born in 1714 and baptised on 11 October that year in Hackford with Whitwell parish, Norfolk. His father was also called Edward.
In his will, dated 14 May 1783, Edward left all his stock in trade, ready money, securities, plate, household furniture and the rest of his personal estate to his wife, and newspaper notices showed that she carried on the business. The Norfolk Chronicle of 13 September 1783 carried this particularly florid advert: “Elizabeth Peterson & Son, Goat Lane, Norwich, beg leave to return thanks to the friends and customers of the late Edward Peterson, salesman, deceased, for their obliging favors conferred in his lifetime; and which they now solicit a continuance of, as they intend carrying on the business as usual, and also to measure and make up cloaths to any price in the most fashionable and expeditious manner, on as low terms as any other person whatever.”
I’ve not found a burial in Norwich for her but an Elizabeth Peterson was buried in Great Yarmouth on 21 February 1799, supposedly aged 80. It’s possible then that she wanted to be laid to rest with family back in the town of her birth.
Elizabeth’s children (all but the first with Edward Peterson) were:
- Ann Parker or Peterson (1741-1812). The daughter of Elizabeth and William Parker, Ann married mariner Walter Phinn in 1768 in Great Yarmouth, the town of her birth. They raised a family but his business (he was described as a mariner and dealer) suffered and notices in the London Gazette and local papers from 1782 refer to Captain Phinn’s bankruptcy and the sale of his property, including a house in Norwich, the family house and contents at the Quay in Great Yarmouth and at least 1,000 gallons of rum and other spirits (Norfolk Chronicles of 26 April 1783 / 27 July 1782). It appears that her Uncle William supported the family as his will dated 1783 refers to property he owned on the Quay being occupied by Walter and family. Ann was also a beneficiary when he died William died in 1789. She was a widow at her death in 1812.
- Margaret Peterson (1749-1749).
- Margaret Peterson (1750-????). Margaret was born in Norwich and was probably single at the time her uncle William wrote his will in 1783 as she was still referred to by her birth name, with no mention of a husband. What happened to her is unknown.
- Mary Peterson (1753-????). Also born in Norwich, I’ve not been able to trace her with any confidence. I suspect she died young as she’s not mentioned in her Uncle William’s will dated 1783.
- Edward Peterson (1756-????). Edward may be the Peterson who married Jane Oliver of Norwich in 1782 in Great Yarmouth. Their child Edward was buried four years later in Loddon, Norfolk, but I’m unsure what happened to him after this. However, he was mentioned in his Uncle William’s will dated 1783.
- John Peterson (1758-1758).
- John Peterson (1761-????). John married Sarah Crane Clover in Norwich in 1787 and appears to have taken over the family business and property in Goat Lane. An advert in the Norfolk Chronicle of 15 October 1791 stated: “Now selling off considerably under prime cost, at Mr Peterson’s shop in the Goat Lane… all his stock in trade consisting of a great variety of new and good second-hand cloaths…” It also noted that the house and shop were to let. He was a beneficiary of his Uncle William’s will written in 1783. They were baptising their children in Norwich in the 1790s but what happened to them all is a mystery.
Sources: BMDs, census and other info at Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast.co.uk. Records at Norfolk Family History Society. British Newspaper Archive, titles in text (including the London Gazette for bankruptcy information). Norfolk Records Office wills: ANW, will register, 1788-1789, (1789) fo. 103, no. 85. ANW, will register, 1782-1783, (1783) fo. 106, no. 98.