Elizabeth Robson BAYES

Elizabeth Robson Bayes was born in Flamborough around 1830, the daughter of George Bayes and Alice Robson. By 1851 she was living in Great Driffield as a servant to the Kirkby family, and the following year she married Thomas Lightley, a tailor, in the parish church of St. Mary Whitechapel, London. The witnesses to the marriage were Stephen Mercer (who was married to Elizabeth's aunt Esther Robson), and Jane Bayes, who was Elizabeth's sister.

Thomas and Elizabeth's first two children were born in Great Driffield, and the remaining five in Bridlington. All but John Robert survived until adulthood. In 1901, Elizabeth was living in Queen's Cottage Bridlington where in February 1643 Queen Henrietta Maria stayed on her way back from Holland bringing arms and aid for her husband Charles I. Mary Alice Fidler, who was referred to as Thomas and Elizabeth's granddaughter in census records, was in fact the great-granddaughter of Elizabeth's uncle William Robson.

Elizabeth died in Bridlington in 1917 at the age of 87. The photograph shows her in the early 1890s with her grandchildren Francis and Elizabeth Annie Lightley.

Sources:

1. Marriage certificate for Thomas Lightley and Elizabeth Robson Bayes.
2. Death certificate for Elizabeth Robson Lightley.
3. Birth certificate for Stephen Mercer Lightley.
4. 1841 census for Flamborough.
5. 1851 census for Great Driffield.
6. 1861 census for Bridlington.
7. 1871 census for Bridlington.
8. 1881 census for Bridlington.
9. 1891 census for Bridlington.
10. 1901 census for Bridlington.
11. Flamborough baptism records.
12. Bridlington Cemetery burial records.
13. IGI.
14. "The Fishing Robsons", by Peter Robson.