The Jordan Story

Oscar and Elizabeth Scholdberg Chapters

Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway Steward's Early Years

by Dave Jordan

Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway was born at the Poplar Union Workhouse on 27 February 1847. The workhouse was a place within communities for the old, the infirm, those looking for work, and unwed mothers. Unwed mothers would stay there before the birth. Later the mother might remain until she had a place to stay. The workhouses were sponsored by a group of churches in the area and by the government. Part of why it was a union of churches was to spread the costs around between the richer and poorer parishes.

In 1846, our unmarried Elizabeth Holloway at about age 20 became pregnant. She entered the Poplar Union Workhouse and had her baby there. Her daughter was named Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway and no father was listed on the birth registration, the surname being that of the mother. According to the custom of the times, Elizabeth Priscilla would keep the name Holloway as part of her name throughout life, and she was shortly renamed Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway Steward after her mother married in 1848.

Fortunately, our Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway was given a very unique middle name, which has been helpful in tracing her through the years. Possibly Priscilla is the name of one of her grandmothers. In fact sometimes the mother named an illegitimate child after the father's grandmother to help send a message toward marriage.

Sixteen months after young Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway was born at the Poplar Union Workhouse, Elizabeth Holloway married Joseph Steward at St. Mary’s Stratford Bow. This was on 11 June 1848. A discussion of whether Joseph Steward was her father is contained in the Joseph and Elizabeth Steward chapter. He appears to have accepted her and it is probable that he is her father. In fact no data support otherwise.

A year after her mother married, little Elizabeth started having little brothers. There were four in all. First Joseph John Steward was born on 18 June 1849 at 13 Williams Street in Poplar. Then on 27 February 1851, another brother Charles Hooper Steward was born. This birth was at 12 Chrisp Street in Poplar. The 27th of February was the same date as Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway birth four years before. Elizabeth and her brother Charles may have bonded by their shared birthday, as they appear to have remained close throughout their lives.

On 23 August 1853, her brother William Robert Steward was born and on 22 March 1858 her brother Henry Steward was born. Little else is known about this period of Elizabeth's growing up. She did attend school, as she knew how to write, which is something her mother didn't know how to do. Her father continued to work at the docks and sometime before 1871 the family moved to 20 Wade Street where the Stewards would remain until Joseph's death in 1892.

Sometime in the mid-1860s, teenage Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway Steward met the man of her dreams, Knut Oscar Scholdberg. He was a sailor from Sweden but frequently sailed English ships and had frequent shore leave among the many East of London ports along the Thames. Poplar was one of these ports and somewhere somehow he and Elizabeth met. The rest is history as they say, but you'll learn more in the next chapter.

Notes

1. Initial Web Publication Date: 2/6/2003
2. Modified: 12/6/2007
3. Desktop Master file: Stories_Jordan