1 Childhood in England

Eliza Brazier Batt (1864–1926) wrote her life story sometime in 1917 or 1918 when she was 53 years old. It focuses primarily on her early life in England before she and her husband accepted the restored gospel, joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and immigrated to America. This is the second of nine installments (see Batt & Lee Ancestors, 2–3). Eliza was the mother of William B Batt (1888–1959) and the grandmother of Dorothy Batt Cleverly (1915–1982). The photograph of the old church was taken in 1912.

Six years quickly passed away, and I was sent to the village school with my sister Jane. Frightened at the other children, I clung to Jane and begged to be allowed to sit with her, but the teacher said no and got angry and whipped me with a cane, which nearly broke my heart. My brothers never ceased to tease me about being whip­ped the first day I went to school.

By the time I was eight years old, I was able to read fairly well. It was the custom in the school that every child who could read a chapter from the Bible without a mis­take was pre­sented a nice new Bible at Christmastime from a lady by the name of Courtray. I re­ceived my Bible and was very proud of it. At eight I also joined the child­ren’s choir at St. Swithun's church. Every Sunday found me in my place in the choir, unless sickness prevented. The choir child­ren were always very neat in appear­ance with brown linsey dresses, black hats trimmed with blue rib­bon, and cloaks of grey.

Time passed so swiftly away. When I was ten years old, I was taken into the par­sonage to learn to work. I was trained to do house­work and cooking at the home of the Reverend J. H. Slessor, rector of St. Swithun's. At the rectory were ten in the family, and five servants were kept. My training began by learn­ing to help wait at table, of which I had such a dread be­cause of my many mis­takes. One circumstance I will never for­get: a dinner party was given in honor of Lady Lucy Wood­house, who having recently returned from South Africa was visiting at the rectory. The dishes were very hot and full, and I accidentally spilled gravy on Lady Lucy's dinner dress. I felt so bad, but Lady Lucy looked at me so kindly and said, "Never mind, Eliza." It was said so quietly and kindly that no one noticed the acci­dent. I always loved Lady Lucy for her kind­ness to me.

After two years' training as a housemaid, I was taken to the kit­chen to learn to cook and where I loved to be. Mrs. Slessor, the mis­tress, took a great interest in me and did every­thing to encourage me. Be­cause Mrs. Slessor was such a good lady, I was brought up almost as one of the family. Every night she saw that I was in bed by half past nine and never allowed me out after dark. Every Sunday morning I attended the Bible class she held for her own children and at eleven o'clock marched with all the other school children two by two to church—no talking allowed.