Eliza (Russell) Speed (abt. 1784 - abt. 1833)

Born about 1784 in North America

Descendants

Died about 1833 at about age 49 in Tasmania, Australia

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Biography

Eliza Russell was the third wife of William John Speed. Together they had 12 children—six sons and six daughters—although only six survived to adulthood.

She was born in North America, possibly in New York, in the early 1780s (see Research Notes).

She met William Speed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in about 1800 and they lived together as husband and wife for close to 30 years. When their relationship broke down in 1829-30, Speed denied he had ever married her. He said, 'he had met her at a Brothel in America, when she was sixteen years old, and himself between forty and fifty - that she had lived with him ever since.'^[1] She, on the other hand, swore on oath that they were married in Nova Scotia.^[2]

She was possibly buried in Hobart under the name 'Ellen Speed' on 19 February 1833.

Research Notes

Her son, Walter, who immigrated to the United States, stated in the 1880 US federal census that his mother's place of birth was New York. This is plausible as there were Russells among the 20,000 Loyalists evacuated from New York to Nova Scotia in 1783 during the closing stages of the American Revolutionary War.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ Letter from Rev W Bedford to Lt-Gov Arthur, 25 May 1830 (Tasmanian Archives.
2. ↑ Letter from G W Gunning to John Burnett, 3 Nov 1829 (Tasmanian Archives, CSO 1/?/9685).
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6PG-89N : 12 November 2020), Walter B. Speed, Stanislaus, California, United States; citing enumeration district ED 92, sheet 292A, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,084.