Elizabeth Sarah Barnes:

Born 1840 ~ Died 1858:
Elizabeth Sarah Barnes was born in 1840 and baptised at St. Michael's Church, Heckfield on the 30th August 1840. Her parents were Edward and Martha and in the 1841 census Elizabeth is living at Clays Farm, Heckfield with her mother and father and brothers Edward and William and sister Mary Martha. By 1851 the family are now living at Newells Farm, Heckfield and her father Edward is now farming some 150 acres. Elizabeth now has three more brothers, Thomas (1843), Charles Maud (1846) and George (1848). Elizabeth is 10 years and her occupation is recorded as a 'scholar'. In 1853, there is another addition to the family with the birth of Jane Anne (1853).

In 1855 at the age of fourteen, Elizabeth became pregnant and gave birth to a son William Charles in the February of 1856 - six months before her sixteenth birthday.

Sadly, Elizabeth contracted typhus fever and died on the 22nd March 1858 aged 17. Present at her death was a Mary Allen, who also registered Elizabeth's death. Elizabeth was buried in the churchyard of St. Michael, Heckfield on the 25th March. It is not known what happened to her son William Charles.

The inscription on Elizabeth's gravestone (pictured right) reads "The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taketh away. Blessed be His name. John 21"  The gravestone has been moved from her grave and is (as at 2006) leaning against the churchyard wall and is next to the gravestone of her younger brother, George who died in the January of 1858 aged 9 years old. 		Gravestone of Elizabeth Sarah Barnes
Death certificate of Elizabeth Sarah Barnes
 

Elizabeth's death certificate