Elizabeth Ogborne

Elizabeth Ogborne (1763/4 – 22 December 1853) was a British antiquary who published an unfinished county history of Essex.

Elizabeth Ogborne
The History of Essex title page
Born	1763 or 4
Died	22 December 1853 London
Nationality	British

Life

Ogborne claimed that her father was Sir John Eliot, 1st Baronet, but her mother was a dealer in tea and the relationship to Eliot is unproven. She married the engraver John Ogborne on 20 March 1790 at St Pancras. Her new husband and father-in-law were both artists. The couple had one son, John Fauntleroy Ogborne (1793–1813). They lived at 58 Great Portland Street in London, where they were landlords to Euphemia Boswell.[1]

The son, John, qualified as a surgeon, but died in his late teens in 1813; and the couple then took up local history. Elizabeth wrote the first part of a History of Essex, her husband supplying engravings. They were assisted by Thomas Leman and possibly Joseph Strutt. The first – and, as it turned out, only – volume of the History was published in 1817.[2] The book received good reviews in the Gentleman's Magazine,[3][4] and Ogborne was commended for her learning and precision. However, sales were poor, and the couple ended their days living on charity. Ogborne died in London in 1853.[1]

References

1. Mitchell, Rosemary (2014) [2004]. "Ogborne , Elizabeth (1763/4–1853)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20577. (subscription required)
2. Ogborne, Elizabeth (1814). The History of Essex: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time. London: R. H. Kelham.
3. Anon. (1814). "The History of Essex, from the earliest Period to the present Time ... Part I". Gentleman's Magazine. 84 (2): 149–50.
4. Anon. (1817). "Ogborne's History of Essex, Parts II and III". Gentleman's Magazine. 87 (2): 335.