Author: Sotheby, Eliza
Biography:
SOTHEBY, Eliza, later RHODE, later COLLINGS (1774-1864: 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. Eliza Rhode married for a second time, at St Mary Le Strand, on 28 Mar. 1818, and became Mrs. George Collings. They lived at Cannon Hall, Hampstead, but he died in 1825, aged 70, and she sold the house and contents in 1827. The census of 1851 shows her living on independent means as an annuitant at Westbourne Park Place, Kensingeton. She moved at least once more, to 7 Pembridge Park Place, Bayswater, where she died on 29 Feb. 1864, leaving effects valued at less than £3,000. (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; London Packet 31 July 1825; Morning Advertiser 20 Dec. 1827; information from AA ) HJ
Other Names:
- Miss Sotheby