Wade & Webb Family History

Elizabeth Prior?–?

England

Elizabeth Prior is known only through her daughter Eliza Keel, whose death record in Brooklyn in 1925 preserves her name. She was the wife of William Keel, a sexton in England, and nothing more of her life has yet been found.

On this page
  1. Family Record
  2. Life
  3. Open questions
  4. Searches made
  5. Notes

Birth

  1. Date unknown England

Marriages

  1. Date unknown William Keel

Death and burial

  1. Date unknown Death: place not recorded

Family

Parents
Not recorded
Spouse
William Keel
Children
Eliza Keel 1840–1925

Line of descent Wade line

  1. Elizabeth Prior
  2. Eliza Keel, daughter
  3. Ellen Mathilda Marritt, daughter
  4. Frank Edward Wade, son
  5. William Albert Webb Wade, son

2nd great-grandmother of Webb Wade, from whom this history is traced. Why Webb Wade?

Life

Elizabeth Prior is known only through the records of her daughter, Eliza Keel.1 The FamilySearch tree records her as born in England and as deceased, with no dates, and names her husband as William Keel; it gives no source for her birth or her death, and records Eliza as her only child.2

Her name comes from the death of her daughter in Brooklyn, New York, on 1 February 1925.3 Eliza had married William Marritt in England in 1857 and later William Thompson, and she died as Eliza Thompson.4 The New York City death record of Eliza Thompson names her parents, and the FamilySearch index reads them as "Wm. Pryor" and "Elizabeth Keel."3 The marriage register of Hendon, Middlesex, England, records that when Eliza Keel married William Marrott, or Marritt, at the parish church on Christmas Day 1857, her father was William Keel, a sexton, that is the officer who looked after a church and its churchyard and often dug the graves.5 Inference Since the 1857 register, made with the bride present, gives her father's surname as Keel, the 1925 record, made after her death by an informant in America, has almost certainly transposed the two surnames: her parents were William Keel and Elizabeth Pryor, and the tree's reading of the mother as Elizabeth Prior rests on that correction.6 The spelling of the surname is uncertain: the only record that gives it has "Pryor," and the tree's "Prior" is a variant of it.6

No record has yet been found of her birth, her marriage to William Keel, her residence or her death, and the register of 1857 does not say where William Keel served as sexton.7 Inference Because both bride and groom gave their residence as Hendon in 1857, Hendon is the most promising parish in which to look for the Keel family, but that is a lead rather than a finding.7

Open questions

None recorded yet.

Searches made

  1. 2026-11-08Newspaper search plannot run: the tree has no birth or death year to bound a search
  2. 2026-11-09Internet Archive: "Elizabeth Prior"1891 pages; first: [The County of Norfolk [microform] : in account with Henry Groff, treasurer ., 1854, p. ](https://archive.org/details/cihm_52069?q=%22Elizabeth%20Prior%22); [The County of Norfolk [microform] : in account with Henry Groff, treasurer ., 1856, p. ](https://archive.org/details/cihm_52070?q=%22Elizabeth%20Prior%22); [Accountability and corruption : public sector ethics, 1997, p. ](https://archive.org/details/accountabilityco0000unse?q=%22Elizabeth%20Prior%22)
  3. 2026-11-09Internet Archive assessment: "Elizabeth Prior" (1,891 pages)First 20 reviewed: Norfolk County, Ontario treasurer's accounts (1854, 1856), a 1997 book on public-sector ethics and other namesakes; nothing in Middlesex or Hendon. Not her; the name is too common without a place.
  4. 2026-11-09Internet Archive hits assessed: 1 searchNo match.
  5. 2026-11-09DPLA: "Elizabeth Prior"13 pages; first: [William and Elizabeth Bly (Minnesota Historical Society), 1890-01-01T00:00:00, p. ](https://www.mnhs.org/search/collections/record/c968a62c-7db3-422d-8506-a3c90cfd9930); [Approved Pension Application File for Elizabeth Prior, Mother of Elisha Prior, Company D, 64th New York Infantry Regiment (Application No. WC99007) (National Archives at Washington, DC - Textual Reference), n.d., p. ](http://catalog.archives.gov/id/103870486); [J. Arthur Rank and Mrs. Rank Aboard the Cunard White Star Liner Queen Elizabeth Prior to Sailing for Home Today After a Two-Month Visit in the United States (National Archives at College Park - Still Pictures), 1947-07-17, p. ](http://catalog.archives.gov/id/213260050)
  6. 2026-11-09DPLA assessment: "Elizabeth Prior" (13 hits; 10 cached)Not her. The approved pension file of an Elizabeth Prior, mother of Elisha Prior, Company D, 64th New York Infantry (NARA, WC99007), is a Civil War mother's pension in New York. She was English, the mother of Eliza Keel (born in England about 1840), and nothing shows her in America. Also the Revolutionary pension W. 18783 (widow of William Prior, Connecticut), and phrase matches on "Elizabeth, prior to" (Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth N.J.) and Washington State clippings.
  7. 2026-11-09DPLA assessment: 1 searchNo match.

Notes

  1. FamilySearch Family Tree, profile GDYL-577: child Eliza Keel (1840–1925) "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949", FamilySearch, Elizabeth Keel in entry for Eliza Thompson, 1 Feb 1925. Record: Elizabeth Keel in entry for Eliza Thompson, 1 Feb 1925 back to the text
  2. FamilySearch Family Tree, profile GDYL-577: birth England, death (deceased, no date), no sources for either; spouse William Keel; child Eliza Keel back to the text
  3. "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949", FamilySearch, Elizabeth Keel in entry for Eliza Thompson, 1 Feb 1925. Record: Elizabeth Keel in entry for Eliza Thompson, 1 Feb 1925 "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949", FamilySearch, Wm. Pryor in entry for Eliza Thompson, 1 Feb 1925. Record: Wm. Pryor in entry for Eliza Thompson, 1 Feb 1925 FamilySearch Family Tree, profile GMWV-2K3 (their page): death 1 Feb 1925, Brooklyn, Kings, New York back to the text
  4. 1857-12-25-marritt-keel-marriage: William Marrott, Eliza Keel, 25 December 1857 FamilySearch Family Tree, profile GMWV-2K3 (their page): spouses William Marritt (married 25 Dec 1857, Hendon) and William Thompson 1881-census-eliza-marritt-household: Eliza Marritt, head, married, 1881 "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949", FamilySearch, Eliza Thompson, 1 Feb 1925. Record: Eliza Thompson, 1 Feb 1925 back to the text
  5. 1857-12-25-marritt-keel-marriage: Eliza Keel, full age, spinster, Hendon; father's name William Keel, rank or profession Sexton back to the text
  6. 1857-12-25-marritt-keel-marriage: Father's Name and Surname: William Keel "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949", FamilySearch, Wm. Pryor in entry for Eliza Thompson, 1 Feb 1925. Record: Wm. Pryor "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949", FamilySearch, Elizabeth Keel in entry for Eliza Thompson, 1 Feb 1925. Record: Elizabeth Keel FamilySearch Family Tree, profile GDYL-577: Elizabeth Prior FamilySearch Family Tree, profile GDYG-8RK (their page): William Keel back to the text
  7. Research log, searches made: newspaper search not run: the tree has no birth or death year to bound a search 1857-12-25-marritt-keel-marriage: Residence at the Time of Marriage: Hendon (both parties) back to the text
Every FamilySearch record attached to Elizabeth Prior (2)
  1. 1 Feb 1925Elizabeth Keel, "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949"
  2. 1 Feb 1925Wm. Pryor, "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949"