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 referred to her as Elizabeth Peterson and mentioned her children but I’ve not found a record of a Wetherill marrying a Peterson. However, an Elizabeth Wetherill married William Parker at Holy Trinity Church in Caister just a few miles from Great Yarmouth – which they gave as their home parish – on 5 June 1740. William was probably the man who died in Yarmouth in November 1745 and was buried at St Nicholas’s on the 14th.
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 favours 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 were named in her brother William’s will and included an Ann Parker, who married Walter Phinn, and a William Parker. I have yet to find any evidence of them being baptised though.
Elizabeth’s children with Edward Peterson are listed below. Those still living were made tenants in common of some of their uncle William Wetherill‘s property once his wife had died, along with his other nieces and nephews, meaning that they had a share of ownership.
- Margaret Peterson (1749-1749) was baptised and buried in Norwich in August 1749.
- Margaret Peterson (1750-????). Margaret was baptised in Norwich and was single at the time her uncle William Wetherill 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 baptised in Norwich, I’ve not been able to trace her with any confidence but she was mentioned in her Uncle William’s will dated 1783.
- Edward Peterson (1756-????). Edward was baptised in Norwich and is almost certainly the Peterson who married Jane Oliver in 1782. She was from Norwich but the marriage licence noted that he was a grocer of Great Yarmouth. The witnesses included his step-sister Ann Phinn and another Phinn relative. They had several children. Edward was mentioned as a beneficiary in his Uncle William’s will written in 1783, while poll books noted him as a grocer in Yarmouth into the first years of the 19th century. What happened after that is unclear.
- John Peterson (1758-1758) was baptised and buried in Norwich in the summer of 1758.
- John Peterson (1761-????). John was baptised in Norwich and married Sarah Crane Clover in Norwich in 1787. He was a beneficiary of his Uncle William’s will written in 1783. He was involved with the family business and property in Goat Lane, Norwich. An advert in the Norfolk Chronicle of 15 October 1791 suggested closure, and 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. John and Sarah baptised their children in Norwich in the 1790s. Sarah was buried at St Gregory’s in June 1816 with various other Clover family members but was a resident of Heigham at the time and married, so John was still alive. When he died is unknown.
Sources: Birth, marriage, death and burial records and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and Norfolk Family History Society.
British Newspaper Archive, titles in text.
Norfolk Records Office wills: ANW, will register, 1788-1789, (1789) fo. 103, no. 85. ANW, will register, 1782-1783, (1783) fo. 106, no. 98.