Elizabeth Best. A death date but no place, help please!

[Rufous Treecreeper]

Elizabeth Best (nee Lillywhite) died on the 16th of March 1825 according to the Bible information written by her son.  (She was born on the 7th of April 1761) 
He also wrote his father Charles's death date which (by a stroke of luck) I found the burial record for.  The death was 31 July 1818 and Hamsey Parish register recorded his burial on the 4 Aug 1818 (died St John). 
No such luck for Elizabeth though...
Elizabeth and Charles were married in Brighton (botp) and had their children baptised in Upper Beeding between 1780 and 1800.  Later they moved to the Lewes/Hamsey area - no idea why and Charles died there.
Their son James had a removal order from St John sub Castro, Lewes in 1820 but their daughter Charlotte had married a Hamsey local William Stoneham. 
I have checked the SFHG data archive but with no good result BUT there is a burial for a Elizabeth Best age 44 on 19 March 1835 in Hamsey - wrong age and 10 years later than her son wrote though. Could it be a mistranscription?
Any help or advice most welcome 
Marlene

[Jo Harding]

Hello Momamg,

Have you tried to find a Will for either Elizabeth Best, or Charles Best? It might be worthwhile searching to see if you can find one for Elizabeth at least. That would give you precise details of her death.

There are many Family Trees on Ancestry for Charles Best and Elizabeth (Lillywhite). One of these has her death as 16 March 1825 with an alternate date of 16 April 1835. Both show place of death as Beeding, Sussex. There are others who show her death as 16 May 1825 or 16 April 1835, sometimes vice versa. In all, confusion seems to reign about her date of death. There is one tree which has her as dying in 1835 aged 74 which puts her year of birth as 1761. Some have her place of death as Sussex, nothing more but others show it as Beeding, or Upper Beeding.

Another tree shows Charles Best as being buried in Upper Beeding but your information indicates this is incorrect.

It is likely that Elizabeth would have been buried with her husband. She may have her name on a gravestone with his and the monumental inscription would provide details of her death. Have you tried to find a grave? The SFHG may have transcriptions of the gravestones there.

Since the details her son gave for the death of his father have proved to be correct, I suspect that those for Elizabeth written in the family Bible would also be right. It seems there is much confusion over Elizabeth's date of death and for all researching this family. This makes me think that you will need to establish where she was buried and whether there are details on her gravestone. The other possible source would be a Will.

What other parishes have you searched for her death? The Sussex Parish Registers have not all been transcribed and are not all online. Have you considered other neighbouring parishes?

The burial in 1835 in Hamsey doesn't look feasible to me. The age is wrong, plus a 10 year difference in her date of death. I cannot see how the registers could record a death that occurred in 1825, 10 years out of sequence. I take it that you have not looked at the prime source. The only way to check would be to examine the actual parish register.

Jo.

[lizdb]

Don't rule out the possibility that she remarried.
Though one would have thought that would have been recorded in the family Bible.
So maybe not at all likely.

[Rufous Treecreeper]

Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed response, Jo.
You are right about those confusing Ancestry trees, they have a lot of assumptions recorded as facts... such as Elizabeth and Charles being buried in Beeding.  I purchased the transcription of the Upper Beeding register and they are are not buried there. 
A few years back another researcher kindly offered to look for Charles Best's will but did not find one.  He was a shepherd and I think the family probably had nothing to leave.  I should look for myself though, I will check to see what I can find online.
Re other parishes, using the SFHG data archive (which I think has transcribed all Sussex parish registers of burials etc) I found no likely Elizabeth Best burials for all of Sussex.
I also checked the Sussex Marriage Index for a remarriage for her, again no possibilities.
I will see if I can find if Charles got a headstone and if Elizabeth has any information on it.  The SFHG has a look up contact for this.
The only other possible avenue to check out that I can think of is Buckinghamshire, as Elizabeth's son Philip Best was living there at the time of her death...
Thank you also Lizdb, and thanks again Jo,
Marlene 

[Jo Harding]

One other possibility is that she was buried in a family grave with a parents, or parents. They lived in Washington, Sussex, per the trees on Ancestry. Is this where they were buried?

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SSX/Washington

I cannot find any burials for Washington on Freereg.

In my family, 3 adult chidren (one of whom was a married lady) had been buried with their mother although they died much later.

Jo

[Rufous Treecreeper]

I have an unsourced record of her father, Thomas Lillywhite being buried at Washington on the 5th of November 1810.  Unfortunately I couldn't verify this via the SFHG Data Archive because they are only up to entering the late 1500's burials for Washington.  It is possible that Elizabeth is there too...

I found an entry for Elizabeth Best in Michael Burchall's The Sussex Poor 2 CD.  It was a removal order from the Lewes session 14 Jan 1820 - 'Best, Elizabeth, widow; JPs order removing her from St John Sub Castro to Beeding alias Seal recorded and confirmed'.

In regards to the Hamsey burials, I heard back very promptly from the SFHG tombstone person.  There is no headstone for Charles Best, and on the Elizabeth Best one it says she was the wife of Andrew Best (who died a few years before her, as well two of their infant children, and they are also buried in St Peters Hamsey).  So at least I know it is NOT my Elizabeth Best...

Her two oldest sons would've been in the Beeding area around the time of her 1825 death.  They left for Australia in late 1828.  Also her oldest daughter lived her whole life in Beeding.  Another daughter was in Brighton.  As for siblings it appears she had a reasonably well-off brother in Littlehampton, a sister in London and other sisters elsewhere.  I think I must cast my net further 
 

[swebby]

I can confirm that there is a burial record for Thomas LILLYWHITE in Washington 5th Nov 1810 from a PRTS transcription.
There isn't a record of Elizabeth BEST having been buried there.
Interesting about the Alias of Seal, any idea why that may be?

Sean

[Rufous Treecreeper]

Oh, that IS interesting, thank you!  Any age information with that Elizabeth Best burial?
  just reread your post - duh - you said there isn't an Elizabeth Best buried Washington 
The Beeding alias Seal (also spelt Seile I think), if I remember correctly, is because there was priory there way back when called Seale.  Somehow the name stuck for parish records even after the priory disappeared.
Marlene

[Jo Harding]

I wonder if Elizabeth went to live with a sibling, or one of her children, when she was the subject of a Removal Order in 1820. The circumstances suggest she would have had to be accommodated in Beeding, perhaps she was taken in by a relative who lived out of the area.

The other thought was whether she was buried in a name variant of Elizabeth, Betty, Betsey etc, which may not show up in a search under Elizabeth. You may have tried this but I felt it would be an idea to mention it.

Jo.