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- Most of the information about Eliza and her descendants comes from Graham Tithecott.
Eliza was born on Goldworthy Farm In Parkham Parish, Devon. She was baptized in St. James Church, Parkham on 27 Oct 1839. She was listed in the 1861 census in London, in service with a Dalgety family in Paddington. Her descendant Graham Tithecott believes that Mr. Dalgety was a friend of the Downing family.
The head of the Dalgety household was Frederick Gonnerman Dalgety. His wife was Blanche E.T. Dalgety. Their marriage was registered in 1855 in Kingsbridge, Devon. Quebec baptismal records show that Frederick had been born in Montreal, Lower Canada in December, 1817, the son of Alexander Dalgety, a lieutenant in H.M 89th Regiment, and Eliza Doidge. Witnesses to his baptism included a Frederick Gonnerman.
Australian electoral and land transfer records show that Frederick Gonnerman Dalgety was a prosperous merchant in Port Philip (now Melbourne) and in Sydney in the 1840s and 1850s.
The 1861 Dalgety household in London, included aunts, cousins and a brother, as well as 11 servants, including Eliza Downing. Frederick's 1894 will showed that he left a huge estate.
Eliza Downing, while still a servant to the Dalgetys, married William Shelton, a grocer's assistant, in 1865 in Kensington, Middlesex County, England. The 1871 census showed them living, with two young daughters, in Paddington, London. Also in the household were Eliza's mother, Elizabeth Downing, and a servant, Mary Thompson. The 1891 census showed William and Eliza living in the Kensington District in London.
Eliza died of liver cancer and exhaustion on 7 April 1895. Her address at the time was 14 Craven Terrace, Lancaster Gate, London.
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