Nosworthy, Elizabeth
NOSWORTHY, Elizabeth
Family background
Elizabeth Nosworthy was born near Goulburn in 1856, third of ten children to farmer Thomas Nosworthy and Esther nee Cavey/Cavill. When she was 18, she undertook three months training at Goulburn Public School in preparation for teaching in a small school.
Chain of Ponds Provisional School
In June 1874 Elizabeth was appointed to Chain of Ponds after its two-month closure 'for want of a teacher' ['The Yass Courier', 19 June 1874, p. 2]. While she does not seem to have had any issues, she resigned after eighteen months, perhaps needed at home after both her older sisters married.
Elizabethfield Provisional School
In late 1877 Elizabeth returned to teaching with a conditional appointment to Elizabethfield near Yass River, but resigned only two months later, on the eve of her mother's death. She then likely took over the care of her siblings, the youngest being only two years old.
In 1881, Elizabeth married Charles Davis, a labourer she met while teaching at Elizabethfield ['Yass-Tribune Courier', 20 March 1933, p. 2]. She moved to Narrandera, until she was widowed three years later, then returning to Goulburn, pregnant with her second child.
Wheatfield Provisional School
In November 1885 Elizabeth resumed teaching, presumably due to financial need as her husband's estate had amounted to only £80. She was temporarily appointed to Wheatfield/Paling Yards, a gold rush area near Sofala, where she taught eighteen months before resigning due to impending marriage. She was now 31, and had completed three years' service over her fragmented thirteen-year career.
Later life
In July 1887 Elizabeth married Walter Neary, a widower from Wattle Flat, becoming stepmother to his several children, aged 12 to 30 years. Despite being substantially younger than her husband, she seems to have had a settled and more financially secure life from this point. She had two more children, and in later years lived alternately in Murrumbateman and Sydney with adult daughters, '['Yass-Tribune Courier', 20 March 1933, p. 2]. Elizabeth died in Murrumbateman in 1933, aged 76.
[Biography prepared by Joanne Toohey, 2024. Sources include NSW school teachers' rolls 1868-1908, NSW school and related records 1876-1979, historic newspapers, NSW births, deaths and marriages index, probate documents, and 'Early Education and Schools in the Canberra Region', (1999) by Lyall Gillespie.]
Schools
- Elizabethfield School
09/1887 - 11/1887