FAMILY HISTORY: NORRIS
THE LIFE OF ELLEN RIGBYE
| Ellen Rigbye, the only daughter of Thomas Rigbye and Nanny Norris, was born in Croston on 19 November 1797 and baptized at the Parish Church,
St Michael & All Angels, ten days later. She was only 5 years old when her father died in 1803 and 8 years old when her mother died in 1805. Her father's brother William Rigbye and her mother's cousin John Norris, who were Executors to her mother's Will, were made her legal guardians and she may have lived with one of them as a child - but this is uncertain because I have not been able to find any early record of her. Other than being mentioned in her mother's Will (in which she and her younger brother John were left their mother's share in several properties in Euxton and Ulnes Walton), the next record I have of Ellen is the 1841 Census, when she was a 40 year old spinster living with her elder brother Robert and his family in Croston. Ellen died 2 years later and was buried on 13 April 1842 in an unmarked grave in the churchyard at Croston Parish Church. She was 44 years old. |
| NOTE: | |
| 1: | The above information is taken from Baptism, Census and Burial records held at the Lancashire Record Office in Preston, and from the memorial inscription at Croston Parish Church. |