Elizabeth Hanbury

Elizabeth Hanbury
Born 9 June 1793
London
Died 31 October 1901
Richmond
Nationality British

Elizabeth Hanbury (9 June 1793 – 31 October 1901) was a British philanthropist who worked with Elizabeth Fry. She lived to be a centenarian who was thought to have been Queen Victoria's "oldest subject". She died after the Queen and when she died in 1901 she was aged 108 years and 144 days.

Life

Elizabeth Sanderson was born in Leadenhall Street in London in 1793 and a record of her birth was made at the parish of All Hallows-on-the-Wall. She visited prisoners who were bound for transportation in London. She and her sister Mary were Quakers and they visited prisons with Elizabeth Fry.[1]

She married Cornelius Hanbury of the chemist company Allen & Hanburys in 1826 becoming his second wife.[2] (Cornelius had been married to a daughter of his business partner William Allen.) In 1830 the Hanburys had a daughter names Charlotte who was to become a missionary in Morocco.[3]

In 1833 she was recognized as a minister in the Quaker church. Her husband died in 1869.[2]

When Hanbury was 100 years old her portrait was painted by Percy Bigland.[2]

Hanbury died in Richmond in 1901 at the age of 108 years and 144 days. Her long life was documented in The Times[4] and later reported in the Dictionary of National Biography[2] and in the Morning Post in Queensland.[1] In 1900 she wrote a letter to Queen Victoria from her "oldest subject".[3]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Death of a Quakeress". Morning Post (Queensland). 17 December 1901. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Wikisource link to Hanbury, Elizabeth (DNB12). Wikisource.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Timothy C. F. Stunt, ‘Hanbury , Elizabeth (1793–1901)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006 accessed 11 Jan 2015
  4. ↑ Brooke, David Brandon & Alan (2008). London city of the dead. Stroud: History. p. contents. ISBN 0752496174.