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Mrs Eliza RUDDLE (formerly Mrs Cotterell), née Fry (1828–1889)
St Paul section: Row 48, Grave H23

Eliza Fry was born in Calne, Wiltshire in 1828 and baptised there on 30 July, the daughter of the builder John Fry and his wife Anne.

At the time of the 1851 census Eliza (22) was a draper’s assistant, living in Calne with her employer and his family.

On 21 August 1856 at St Dunstan-in-the-West Church, London, Eliza Fry married her first husband, the Abingdon draper Cyprian James Cotterell, the son of Cyprian Cotterell: they were both then staying at Fetter Lane in London. They had two children:

• Cyprian James Cotterell junior (born in Abingdon in 1856/7)
• Annie Fry Cotterell (born in Abingdon in 1859/60)

Eliza’s first husband Cyprian James Cotterell senior died in Abingdon on 12 December 1860 when the children were tiny. His effects came to under £1,500, and Eliza was his executor.

At the time of the 1861 census Eliza Cotterell, a widow of 32, was working as a draper and living at Market Place, Abingdon with her children Cyprian (4) and Annie (1), plus two drapers’ assistants, a cook, and a nurse.

In the third quarter of 1864 at Kingsclere, Hampshire, Mrs Eliza Cotterell married her second husband, Robert Ruddle (born in Kingsclere in 1827) and they had one daughter:

• Clara Eliza Ruddle (born in Ducklington in 1866, reg. second quarter, but not baptised at Kidlington until 11 April 1869).

At the time of the 1871 census Eliza (42) was working as a dressmaker & milliner and living in Kidlington with her husband Robert Ruddle (43), who was the sub-postmaster & grocer there, and Cyprian (14) and Annie (11) from her first marriage, who were both still at school, and Clara (4).

By the time of the 1881 census Eliza (52) seems to have separated from her second husband, and described herself as both married and the head of the household. She was living at Hill Cottage, High Street, Kidlington with her two daughters Annie Cotterell (21) and Clara Ruddle (15): both Eliza and her elder daughter Annie were both working as dressmakers & milliners. Meanwhile her husband Robert Ruddle (62) was working as a servant and living at Rectory Cottage in Somerton near Bicester, while her son Cyprian James Cotterell (25) was working as a pawnbroker’s assistant and lodging in Worcester.

Her son was married in 1884:

• Near the beginning of 1884 in the Holborn district Cyprian James Cotterell junior married Kate Jacobs.

The marriage was very brief, and he petitioned for divorce the following year, with the co-respondent named as Henry Pashley.

Eliza Ruddle must have moved to Oxford at some point in the 1880s. She died there in 1889:

† Eliza Ruddle died at 19 Walton Street at the age of 60 on 27 March 1889 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 1 April (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

Her effects came to £52 7s., and her her sole executor was her son Cyprian, who was now a pawnbroker’s manager living at 70 St Peter’s Street, Islington.

In 1891 her second husband Robert Ruddle (62) was living at Fewcott Lane, Stoke Lyne and still working as a servant. He died near the beginning of 1894.

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Children of Mrs Eliza Ruddle

By her first husband, Cyprian James Cotterell:

• Cyprian James Cotterell junior (born in 1856/7) was calling himself simply James Cotterell and was working as a dealer at the time of the 1891 census. He was living in Islington with a woman called Annie (22), whom he stated to be his wife. In 1901 when he was aged 44 he was in Dartmoor Prison, with his occupation recorded as a diamond broker and jeweller. He is hard to trace after that date
• Annie Fry Cotterell (born in 1859/60) was living with her half-sister Clara Ruddle when on 4 September 1901 at Holy Trinity Church, Upper Tooting she married Frank Hardy, described as a manager, They are hard to trace after that date.

By her second husband, Robert Ruddle:

• Clara Eliza Ruddle (born 1865/6) was a housekeeper to a solicitor at 4 Brussels Road, Battersea in 1891. On 9 June 1896 at St Mary’s Church in Battersea she married his son William Harford Shew, who was an electrical engineer, and their son Lionel Harford Shew was born in Wandsworth in 1897. At the time of the 1901 census Clara (32) and William (33) were living at 36 Dafforne Road, Streatham with their son Lionel (4) and their servant. At the time of the 1911 census Clara (43) was living at Derry Hill, Lindenthorp Road, St Peter Intra, Kent with her husband William (44), who now had no occupation and was living on his own means, and their children Lionel (14) and Sheila (9), plus their servant. Mrs Clara Eliza Shew died in Watford on 21 December 1943 at the age of 77 and her effects came to £3,267 14s.6d.