Born in Boxted, Essex, England, United Kingdom
Ancestors 
Daughter of Mark Lay
and Mary Harriet (Strowger) Lay
Sister of
Alice Lay, Mary Stronger (Lay) Metcalfe, John Royce Lay, Charles Maurice Lay, Edward Lewes Lay [half] and Elizabeth Byam (Lay) Haager [half]
Wife of
Robert Spooner
— married
19 Feb 1858 in St.Martin In The Field, London, England
Descendants 
Mother of
Llewellyn Spooner, Mary Harriet Spooner, Ellen (Spooner) Langworthy, Alice Eva Spooner, Emily Maud Spooner, Marion Royce (Spooner) Crawford, Edward Egbert Spooner, Robert James Spooner, Sarah Ethel (Spooner) Crawford and Arthur William Ethric Spooner
Died
at about age 88
in Pennant Hills, New South Wales, Australia
Profile last modified
| Created 10 Oct 2012
This page has been accessed 1,257 times.
Biography
Eillen was born in 1836 in Boxted, Essex, England. She was the daughter of Mark Lay and Mary Strowger. Ellen passed away about 1925 in Sydney, Australia. [1]
When Ellen was two years old, her mother passed away and Ellen became very close to her aunt, Marion (Lay) Royce, who lived nearby at Boxted Hall.
The above map shows Boxted Hall and Pond House
The master of Boxted Hall, John Brickwood Royce and his wife Marion became very fond of their niece Ellen, who lived with her family on the estate, by the dew pond, in the rambling "Pond House".
In her childhood years, Ellen would visit her aunt and uncle daily, and it was in her early teen years that a young man, Robert Spooner, joined the Boxted Hall staff as a footman/butler, (about 1851).
This was how Ellen and Robert the butler met.
Their friendship continued and developed over the next few years - probably unbeknown to Ellen's father and aunt & uncle - and then on 19th Feb 1858, Ellen Lay and Robert Spooner eloped, to St Martin In The Fields in London.
The next day, they boarded the clipper ship "the Suffolk" on its maiden voyage to Melbourne, Australia. They eventually made their way to Sydney.
|
| Ship "Suffolk" |
One hundred and thirty years on, this defining period in Ellen's life, including her early years in Australia, became the subject matter of a novel, written and published by Ellen's great grand-daughter, Dorothy Ellen Langworthy, writing as "Dorothy Michell": " Gommie - the Girl Who Married the Butler: A Novella of 19th Century Australia 1858 - 1893 " [2]
Sources
- Peter Knowles,. Click the Changes tab for the details of edits by Peter and others.
References
- ↑ Entered by Peter Knowles, Oct 10, 2012
- ↑ "Gommie - the Girl Who Married the Butler: A Novella of 19th Century Australia 1858 - 1893", by Dorothy Michell, published by Butterfly Books, Springwood, NSW, 31 December, 1988, ISBN 0947333010
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