born in Dudley, Worcestershire, England, daughter of Sarah (Cox) and William Badley, Surgeon. Her father died when she was only fourteen and her eldest brother was a student of Abernathy at Saint Bartholomew's Hospital in London. When John Badley, F.R.C.S. returned to Dudley he not only took over his father's practice but he also became head of the family assuming responsibility for her mother and younger brothers. "Being imperious and domineering in temper"* John's actions were not always taken well by the siblings and she particularly as it is said that she had a temper to match his. One winter in the 1820s, while living with her mother at Insetton, they made the wool counted cross-stitch carpet shown in the photos. "good looking, intelligent, cultivated, she both played and sang well. Her eldest brother used to send her music from London when he studied medicine there. Her cousin Edward said that 'she had been his idea of beauty in his youth.' The early loss of teeth prematurely aged her. Uncle Henry says that she was always very kind to him as a child when he and his brother John would go over to Box Hedge each Sunday."* After the death of their brother Radcliff in 1834 and thier mother in 1839, she traveled to America with her brother Anthony. "They landed at New York City, proceeded up the Hudson river, bought a small property and settled there."* After a few years she died and was buried "at the foot of the Catskill Mountains." Her brother then returned to England and after one return to America lived out the rest of his life there. Her marker reads:

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Sacred to the memory of ELIZABETH BADLEY the daughter of Wm. Badley, Surgeon of Dudley, old England.

She departed this life in the search of a better one May 13, 1841 aged 54 years.


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(bio by: David McJonathan-Swarm)


*the quotations are all taken from a handwritten copy made at Grasmere, (Westmoreland) Cumbria, England by Louise MacArthur of "Reminiscences of The Badleys" written by cousin Mary, the eldest daughter of Dr. James Payton Badley when she interviewed Uncle Henry, her father's brother, at Insetton and from MEMORIES AND REFLECTIONS by J. H. Badley; London: George Allen & Unwin, 1955.