Author: Sotheby, Eliza
Biography:
SOTHEBY, Eliza, later RHODE (b 1774: findmypast.com)
She was baptised Elizabeth Sotheby at Woodford, Essex, on 23 Oct. 1774, one of nine children and the eldest surviving daughter of Elizabeth (Cotton) and John Sotheby, who had married at St. George’s, Bloomsbury, London, on 6 Sept. 1770. In 1778 John Sotheby replaced his uncle Samuel Baker (1711-78) as a partner with George Leigh (1742-1816) in the London auction firm that then became Leigh and Sotheby, with premises in York St., Covent Garden. Patient Griselda (1798) is the only known work by “Miss Sotheby”; it predates the better known adaptations of Boccaccio by Keats and Barry Cornwall (qq.v.) and deserves to be compared with them. MR however was condescending: “her talents seem worthy of cultivation.” On 10 Dec. 1801 she married Robert Rhode (1764-1812) at St. Paul’s Covent Garden. There do not appear to have been children from the marriage. Rhode, who became the captain of the EIC ship Sir William Bensley, died in London and was buried at St. Paul’s Covent Garden on 26 Oct. 1812. It is not clear what happened to his wife. She may be the Elizabeth Rhode who was buried at North Kilworth, Leicestershire, on 27 Apr. 1828, but it is perhaps more likely that she stayed in London and married for a second time, at St Mary Le Strand, on 28 Mar. 1818—at which point she would have become Mrs. George Collings and no certain date of death can be found. (findmypast.com 13 Nov. 2024; “Sotheby Family” ODNB 13 Nov. 2024; MR 30 [Dec. 1799], 462-3; Oracle [London] 12 Dec. 1801; Sun 24 Oct. 1812)
Other Names:
- Miss Sotheby