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Eliza JUSTHAM
1831 - 1918 (~ 86 years)
Has 32 ancestors and 21 descendants in this family tree.
Set As Default Person 
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Name Eliza JUSTHAM Relationship 
with Teresa Ann GOATHAM Born Milton Combe, Buckland Monachorum, Devon, England 
- From the 1911 census
Baptised 16 Jul 1831 St. Andrew’s Church, Buckland Monachorum, Devon, England - PR entry shows "Eliza Jetson", dau of John and Elizabeth
Gender Female Residence 1841 Bickham Lodge, Buckland Monachorum, Devon, England - By the age of 9 Eliza was not living with her parents but about a mile and a half away at the isolated Bickham Lodge with William Hooper (carpenter) and his wife Elizabeth and their 6 month old baby (1841 census; surname recorded as Jutson)
I suspect Eliza may have been a Parish Apprentice, i.e. the Parish arranged for Eliza to be taken on where she would be taught a trade (probably housewifery); she would be unpaid but her keep provided for by her Master / Mistress.
Occupation 1851 33 & 34, Cornwall Street, Devonport, Stoke Damerel, Devon, England House servant in Inn - Birthplace given as "North Buckland" but I think it was this Eliza; age fits (19) and I don't believe there were others of the same age.
Also present were Innkeeper Samuel Wood and his wife, and a lodger, 20 yr old Irish seaman Timothy Sullivan.
(No name is given for the inn in the 1851 census)
Cornwall Street is now a quiet mostly residential street, largely rebuilt, but it must have been very different in 1851. It leads down to Cornwall Beach, where at North Corner the Old Customs House and landing stage can still be seen indicating that this is where people came ashore and departed from for foreign climes.
An information board informs us that the market boat and local feries called here regularly and it is said to be where convicts bound for Australia were embarked.
A pub, the Steam Packet, is still present but the Eliza's address suggests the inn where she was working was in the middle of the street, not near the end. And a look through the others shows that there were a number of inns, as well as other eating and drinking establishments, as one would expect where there was so much coming and going. Besides catering for travellers, Cornwall Street also had the usual range of trades found everywhere - a butcher and a baker, a confectioner, shoemakers and tailors. A blacksmith, tallow chandler and masons could also be found. Given its close proximity to the Dock Yard there were not surprisingly various dockyard workers present - ropemakers, shipwrights and riggers. The odd seaman was resident but more households where the head was a "seaman's wife" or "sailor's wife".
One wonders what Eliza with her very rural upbringing must have made of this busy area. And one fears for the safety of a young servant in an inn in such an area - and what duties were expected of a young female inn servant?
She may have remained in the Three Towns for some years as she married in Plymouth eleven years later (I have yet to find her in the 1861 census), but thereafter the rest of her long life was spent back in the countryside, close to where she grew up.
Residence 1871 Milton Combe, Buckland Monachorum, Devon, England - With husband and 5 sons (John, George, Richard, William and Isaac)
Residence 1881 Barnpark, Buckland Monachorum, Devon, England - With husband and 3 sons (Isaac, Fred and Joseph)
Residence From 1891 to 1901 Fairtown Farm, Buckland Monachorum, Devon, England - William and Eliza were alone in 1891; had a granddaughter Grace E. Bulley, aged 7, living with them in 1901.
Residence 1911 Gift House, Buckland Monachorum, Devon, England [1, 2] - In 1661 a Sir Francis Drake, the 2nd Baronet and great nephew of the Sir Francis Drake, gave £120 to build an almshouse for 6 'pious persons', born and bred in Buckland Monachorum parish. It is believed that the Gift House is that almshouse. Into the C20th free rooms were given to five women by the owner of Buckland Abbey, but it is now a private house.
In 1911, the 250th anniversary of the gift being made, living in the Gift House along with Eliza were 3 other widows: Ann Collacott (aged 75), Jane Brown (aged 88) and Ann Witheridge (aged 78).
Life in the Gift House may not always have been as peaceful as intended. The village school log book has an entry in 1882 "Boys warned about interrupting the old ladies in the Gift House". But that was well before Eliza's time there.
Assuming she stayed there until her death, or at least that she was still there in 1913, something far more disturbing than the interruptions of boys must have unsettled the old ladies.
Actually, it must have shocked everyone in the parish, but especially so the old ladies in the Gift House as it occurred next door to them.
The family living next door were the Greeps, although in July the youngsters in the family were there alone, as there father had died and mother was in hospital. On one terrible day the mother's eldest son, William John Coombs, aged 31, half siblings to her other children, who had recently come to live with the family after leaving the navy borrowed a gun from a nearby farm, on the pretence that he was going rabbiting, but instead returned home and shot one of his sisters, aged 18, and then killed himself.
The Gift House, Buckland Monachorum
Looking down the main street in Buckland Monachorum, from the Gift House at the top to the church.
The Gift House was an almshouse for over 250 years and was where my 4 x great aunt Eliza Bulley (nee Justham) was living at the time of the 1911 census.
The cottage adjoining it (the unpainted one) is where a tragic murder and suicide occurred in 1913.
By co-incidence this view is taken from almost the same spot as a photograph in Alice J. Bere's book "Buckland Monachorum". When this is out…Died Dec Q 1918 Tavistock Reg Dist, Devon, England - GRO ref: Bulley, Eliza aged 87 q4 1918 Tavistock RD 5b 763
Siblings4 brothers and 8 sisters Patriarch & Matriarch 
Richard ? PIKE ?, b. Est 1736, (probably), Devon, England, d. Yes, date unknown (Great Grandfather) 
Elizabeth OLIVER, d. Yes, date unknown (Grandmother)Person ID I1134 All Last Modified 2 Jul 2022
Father John JUSTHAM, b. Abt 1795, Buckland Monachorum, Devon, England , d. 28 Mar 1866, Milton Combe, Buckland Monachorum, Devon, England (Age ~ 71 years) Mother Elisabeth OLIVER, b. Abt 1794, Whitchurch, Devon, England , d. 3 Aug 1864, Milton Combe, Buckland Monachorum, Devon, England (Age ~ 70 years) Married 20 Apr 1814 St. Andrew’s Church, Whitchurch, Devon, England - From PR entry (image on FMP, viewed 24 Nov 2018)
Shows John Justham of Buckland Monachorum, Elizabeth Oliver otp, married by Banns, John signed, Elizabeth made her mark, witnesses Richard Justham made his mark, Nicholas Symons signed.
Family ID F861 Family Group Page | Family Chart
Family William BULLEY, b. Between 1835 and 1842, Denbury, Devon, England , d. Dec Q 1906, Tavistock Reg Dist, Devon, England (Age ~ 71 years) Married Mar Q 1862 Plymouth Reg Dist, Devon, England - GRO ref: Justham, Eliza to Bulley, William q1 1862 Plymouth RD 5b 463
(at the time of writing, on FreeBMD there is one groom missing on the page; William Bulley is listed with page as 46 which has to be wrong; looking at the image I believe I can see a faint 3)
Finding this couple in 1871 shows the age and birthplace are consistent with this Eliza, and given the rarity of the surname Justham I'm pretty confident it's this Eliza.
Children9 children Last Modified 2 Jul 2022 Family ID F5855 Family Group Page | Family Chart
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Sources - [S129] Books: The Book of Buckland Monachorum, Pauline Hamilton-Leggett, (Tiverton, Devon: Halsgrove, 2002.), 23, 27, 59. (Reliability: 3), 15 Aug 2013.
- [S168] website: British Listed Buildings, (http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/), accessed 15 Aug 2013), The Gift House, Buckland Monachorum (Reliability: 3).
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