Author: Daye, Eliza
Biography:
DAYE, Elizabeth (c. 1734-1829: ancestry.co.uk)
No birth record has been located but her age at death was recorded as 95. She was the daughter of the Rev. James Daye, a Presbyterian minister, and his first wife whose name is not known. Likely she was born in Lancashire and Blain states that she was educated by her father. He was the minister of the St. Nicholas street chapel in Lancaster from about 1736 until his death in 1770. One of her poems, “On the Inscription on my Mother’s Monument Being Defaced,” indicates that her mother had died when Elizabeth (Eliza) was very young. Elizabeth Daye was the first librarian of the Lancaster Amicable Society, a private subscription library (1769-c. 1820). The Society subscribed to Daye’s book which has an impressive list of subscribers including many from Lancashire and also from London, Scotland, and Ireland. She died on 23 Jan. 1829 and was buried in the churchyard of the St. Nicholas street chapel on 29 Jan. Her will, proved on 16 Feb. 1829, left her estate in equal shares to two women living with her at the time of her death. (Blain; ancestry.co.uk 2 July 2024; Manchester Times 16 Oct. 1891; Cross Fleury, Historic Notes on the Ancient Borough of Lancaster [1891])