AustLit

'Eliza Baldwin was born in 1860 in Bathurst, NSW. Her father was Robert Baldwin, born in Derby, England, moved to Bathurst in 1855, and became a very prominent builder. Her mother was Susannah Lamerton, born in Penge, Surrey, England, who came to Bathurst in 1857. They married in 1859. Robert died in 1908, Susannah in 1919.

'Robert’s brother, Edward, came to Victoria in 1857, becoming a major grocery merchant in Kyneton. Four of Susan’s brothers came to Australia after her: George Lamerton, who was also a prominent builder in Bathurst, and owner of the Great Western Family Hotel there; William Lamerton, who came to Adelaide and became a prominent builder; and Edmund and Alexander White Lamerton, both bricklayers. The former moved to Lidcombe in Sydney, while the latter moved to Lithgow, then to Newcastle.

'Eliza married William Sebastian Hodge at Bathurst in 1882. Hodge’s father, Sebastian Hodge, was a timber merchant and undertaker in Bathurst. William Sebastian was an undertaker. He died in 1939. Eliza died in 1949. In 1925, her husband donated the 1821 Rankin Coach, which had been used in the family funeral business for 62 years, to the NSW Historical Society. It is now in the National Museum of Australia.'

Source: Biography supplied by Robert Colomb.