Date of birth: 4 February 1846         Place of birth: Gloucester

Father: Charles Prosser (1804 Gloucerstershire - 1848 Gloucester), Chemist of Westgate Street, Gloucester (born in 1804 in Gloucestershire; died in 1848 at Gloucester)

Mother: Elizabeth Peach (born in 1805 at Painswick; died in 1888 at Gloucester)

Spouse(s): Henry William Clark

Date(s) of marriage: 28 April 1870     Place(s) of marriage: St Michaels’s Church, Gloucester

Occupation:

Lifestory: Elizabeth Fanny Prosser was baptised at St Nicholas, Gloucester on 5 March 1846, the last of the four children of Charles and Elizabeth Prosser (nee Peach), who married in 1838. Charles Prosser was a Chemist who lived in Westgate Street and later Parkers Row (now Brunswick Road). He died aged 43 when Elizabeth was only two years old, leaving multiple properties both in and around Gloucester City. Her mother later married William Trenfield, who was one of the two druggists Charles had employed and who took over the business at Westgate Street.

When Elizabeth married Henry William Clark in 1870, her name was given as Elizabeth Frances Prosser, but at the time of the 1871 census, whilst Elizabeth and Henry lived with her mother at Brunswick Road, she was still known as Fanny. Later that year Elizabeth and Henry set up home in Lansdowne, Worcester, where their three children were born and where they were later joined by Henry William’s half-sister Charlotte Maria Green after the deaths of her parents. In 1881, the family moved to Pittville Circus Road, Cheltenham, to a substantial house they named Moultondale (now Kingswood).

Elizabeth and Henry had three children: Henry Douglas Gee Clark, Isabel Charlotte Peach Clark, and Katherine Frances Clark.

The Cheltenham Looker-On of 11 September 1909 records, in her obituary, that Elizabeth was a “most respected resident and a seat holder at All Saints Church for over 30 years” and that “the funeral cortege consisted of three pair-horse carriages and deceased’s private brougham”. There were many floral tributes including several from staff, for exampe “with deepest respect for a kind mistress from two old servants, Clara and Jim”.

Moved to Pittville from: Worcester in 1881       Moved from Pittville to: She lived in Moultondale until her death, after which their “exceedingly well built and very attractive detached double fronted freehold residence with Tennis lawn, kitchen garden and Capital stabling” was put up for auction.

Date of death: 6 September 1909        Place of death: Cheltenham

Date of burial: 9 September 1909        Place of burial: “In the new Cemetery” (Bouncers Lane), Cheltenham.

Notes: Probate 25 October 1909 to Henry Douglas Gee Clark, Clerk and Arthur Boulton, Solicitor, effects valued at £196, 2s. Although Elizabeth had been left “his household and personal effects and consumable stores including wines and liquors and the use of Moultondale for life” under Henry Williams’s will in 1905, ownership had passed to their three children, hence the apparent low value of Elizabeth’s estate.

ID: 10148            Contributor(s): Debbie Christopher