She turned to writing as a distraction from her grief. Elizabeth had four daughters, though her only son died of scarlet fever at nine months of age. They settled in the rapidly growing industrial city of Manchester, where Elizabeth engaged in relief work among the poor and taught Sunday school. Her mother died a little more than a year after Elizabeth’s birth, so the infant Elizabeth was sent to the country town of Knutsford, Cheshire, to be raised by her aunt, Hannah Lumb, whom she later described as “more than mother.” Elizabeth married William Gaskell, a Unitarian minister, in 1832. Her parents had eight children, but Elizabeth, the last born, was one of only two who survived. Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson was born to William Stevenson, a civil servant and writer, and Elizabeth Holland Stevenson.
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