Elizabeth Waight: A quiet country lady with an amazing achievement
Sometimes when we are researching our family history we stumble across a rather unique story and Colyn Storer and Lynn Plumer found exactly that, when they looked into the remarkable life of Elizabeth Waight.
Elizabeth was born on 27 December 1840 at the Rutland Arms public house, Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire. She was the fourth child of Benjamin Waight and his wife Ann (née Beecham) and was baptised at St James’ Church, Woolsthorpe on 24 January 1841. Her siblings were William, Mary, Frances, Tryphena and Jane, who later married George Pearson. Elizabeth’s grandfather Joseph Waight’s date and place of birth is uncertain. Elizabeth’s memory was that he was given the licence of the Rutland Arms by the Duke of Rutland, after serving with the duke, as his batman, in the army.
Joseph died when his son Benjamin was still a baby, so his mother Tryphena and then his stepfather, Christopher Pick, ran the pub until Benjamin was old enough to do so. Elizabeth never married and spent almost all her life living and working at the Rutland Arms, where she also cared for her two nephews after each of their mothers had died in childbirth. When George Pearson’s father-in-law Benjamin Waight retired in 1882, George took over the licence of the Rutland Arms until 1927, when his son Wallace took over.
After her brother-in-law George retired in the 1920s, Elizabeth was cared for by his daughter, Mabel, for the last 18 years of her life in the village of Woolsthorpe.
You might be wondering at this point what makes Elizabeth’s story so remarkable. Well, Elizabeth’s claim to fame is that she appears to be one of the very few, if not the only known person, who has appeared both in every census from 1841 to 1921, and also in the 1939 Register. This was all in Woolsthorpe, and with the exception of the 1939
