Eliza Phillips

Early life and marriage

Eliza Barron was born in Wandsworth, Surrey and baptised at the church of St Mary-at-Lambeth on 11 July 1823, the only child of George Barron (c. 1763–1852), a gentleman, and Elizabeth Joanna Barron (née Barron; 1792–1824). Her parents may have been distant cousins. She was probably raised by her maternal grandparents, but little is known of her early life, though she did meet Samuel Taylor Coleridge while living in Highgate in her youth.

On 11 November 1847, she married the historian and author Robert Montgomery Martin after he had his first marriage dissolved by an Act of Parliament. She was widowed in 1868 and her interest in animal welfare began, inspired by witnessing the sufferings of cattle on a sea voyage.

On 16 May 1874 she married the Reverend Edward Phillips (1807–1885). They rented Culverden Castle, Culverden Down, Tunbridge Wells from the Salomons family, where she became the central figure in the local branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (later RSPCA).