Mrs J. M. Woodyear
(1796-1886)
1 July 1862

Volume 8, page 158, sitting 10, 252.

[The previous entry in the Silvy daybooks is this sitter's husband. The couple are identified as Mr and Mrs J. M. Woodyear.]

Born in or about 1796, Eliza Howell Shepherd was the daughter of Edward Charles Howell Shepherd and his wife Elizabeth Howell Pepys. 

On 26 June 1845 at St Marylebone in London she married Joseph Mitchell Woodyear, son of Joseph Mitchell Woodyear. According to the announcement of their wedding in The Gentleman's Magazine (Volume 178): 'At Marylebone Church, Joseph Mitchell Woodyear, eldest son of the late J. M. Woodyear, esq. of the island of St Christopher [modern-day St Kitts and Nevis], to Eliza, second daughter of the late Edward Charles Howell Shepherd, esq. of Devonshire-st. Portland-row.'

In 1851 the couple were living at Heathfield Terrace in Chiswick with two servants, specifically a cook and a housemaid. Mr Woodyear gave 'House proprietor' as his source of income.

In 1871 they were living at 7 Addison Crescent in Kensington, still with only a cook and a housemaid though not the same ones as in 1851. Mr Woodyear now gave 'Landowner' as his profession. 

According to the two censuses, both Mr and Mrs Woodyear were 'deaf and dumb.' The 1851 census provides the additional information that Mr Woodyear was also blind. 

Joseph Mitchell Woodyear died in 1875, aged 80. 

Mrs Eliza Woodyear died, aged 90, on 11 January 1886 at 7 Addison Crescent, Kensington. She left an estate valued at £25,920.