NOTES:
See article
by
the Historical Society of Cartaret County, N.C. Anne Shoebridge
apparently
lived a heroic life. Raised in comfort in London, she accompanied
her best friend to America when the friend married Robert Williams and
then, when the friend died, married Williams herself. This would
still have given her a life of material comfort, even to some extent
after
Robert Williams's business reversals and death, but at that point a
Tory
whose departure to England during the war had prevented timely payment
of a debt, called in the debt with interest, leaving the family in
near-poverty.
This was in 1799, and within a year, with the three children named
above,
she became part of the great Quaker migration to the frontier in Ohio,
where the family lived in a tiny cabin built by their own hands.
Despite considerable deprivation, all prospered, and Elizabeth herself
lived another 45 years, nearing the incredible age of 97 when she
died.
The account by her son John (the first editor of The American
Pioneer),
linked below, of the family's arrival in Ohio is fascinating and well
written.
Writing in about 1843, he says of her:
My mother had been weakly
on our journey, and at Fredericktown was more seriously ill than I ever
knew her before or since. She still lives, a monument of the
Lord's
mercy, and a bright illustration of the discipline of which the human
mind
is susceptible. She has been blind about eight years, and to my
recollection
she never complained of anything, but trusted all to Divine
Providence.
She now, at the age of ninety-five, waits her change with patience, is
little or no trouble to anyone; enjoys good health, a serene and sound
mind, and the age of dotage seems never to have overtaken her; never
gives
unnecessary pain or trouble to anyone, and is pleased when by repeating
verses she learned when a girl, she can add to the happiness of the
social
circle. She has been a woman of strict economy and great
industry,
but never milked a cow, and perhaps never spun a thread in her life,
and
scarcely ever cooked, but was a great sewer and knitter. This she
does now with great facility, saying that if she could not knit she
would
be very unhappy. She is very little of her time without her
knitting,
except on First Days, as she calls the Sabbath. She was always a
member of the Society of Friends. She is much delighted with
hearing
the Word or any religious books read.