Elizabeth (Jenks) Beaufoy, later Elizabeth Pycroft

British, christened 1759 - died 1824

BiographyElizabeth Jenks was christened on July 11, 1759, a daughter of Sarah and William Jenks of Shifnal, Shropshire. She inherited considerable property as a co-heir of Humphrey Pitt of Prior Lee Hall in Shifnal, and after being orphaned as a child, was raised by her guardian and uncle, Plowden Slaney (1724-1788) of Hatton Grange, Shropshire, and his wife Martha, a daughter of Humphrey Pitt. Around the age of sixteen, she eloped with Henry Hanbury Beaufoy (1750-1795), the elder son of a successful Quaker wine and vinegar merchant with a distillery at Cupor Garden, Lambeth. Henry Beaufoy would soon gain a reputation as a brilliant Whig politician, elected Member of Parliament for Minehead in 1783, and for Great Yarmouth the following year. After her marriage, Elizabeth Beaufoy lived in Great George Street, London, where she acquired a reputation as a great beauty, while her husband became known for his dapper dress and elegantly crafted speeches, their sonorous cadences betraying the coaching of Thomas Sheridan. No children resulted from the marriage, which ended with her husband's early death from consumption on May 17, 1795. Two years later, on June 17, 1797, Elizabeth Beaufoy married the widower Joseph Pycroft, a banker, of Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Her second husband had children from his previous marriage and this marriage was without issue. She died in 1824 and was survived by her second husband.

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