Brown, Eliza

Singer

Collection date: Oct 1908

Area: London

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Miss Eliza Brown at Hammersmith: age 80, 2 songs ‘The Broken Bridge’ and ‘The Fox’ on 11 Oct 1908: In his notes FT2017 Sharp wrote ‘Nurse’ Brown and there can be little doubt but that the singer is Sharp’s old family nurse Miss Eliza Selina Brown, who was born c1828 at Blackfriars. She was living with the Sharp family in the 1861 census at Denmark Hill; she was aged 32, one of 6 servants. Cecil Sharp was 1 at the time with older sister Mabel 3, Ethelreda 2 and younger sister Bertha 4 months. Eliza was ‘nurse’ and there was Mary Lowe ‘under nurse’.

Eliza stayed with the Sharp family for over 40 years (age 72 in 1901 census for Hammersmith: ref RG13/48 f153 p11). Sharp’s mother Jane and brother Lewin were living in separate houses in Brook Green Hammersmith in 1911. Eliza Brown was not with either of them but perhaps was living nearby. Sharp noted her 2 songs at Hammersmith. Eliza died in February 1921.