Elizabeth Codd (1801-1885)

Excerpts from history of John Ormond and Elizabeth Codd by Diantha O.K. Schaub

Elizabeth Codd was born November 25, 1801, in St. Ishmael's Parish, where she lived until her marriage. Her father Tobias Codd who became a miller, was born in Nolton where he was christened December 26, 1773, the son of William Codd and Eleanor Saise. [There is] an old stone church in Nolton where the earliest known records to date (1960) of our Codd ancestors are found. I read with joy and copied such records as are still kept there, then took the picture with my Kodak.

The churchyard being very old became so filled with graves long ago, that the stones were all lined up around the edge or new small ones made with only the name and initial, so one does not know whether J. Codd is James or Jane or John Codd. Then the yard was built up four feet and a new layer of graves is now spreading over the yard. That is why the sunken path and the half-hidden door and windows, instead of the church just being built in a swale. Elizabeth Codd’s mother was Elizabeth Moore daughter of Patrick Moore and Lettice Morgan. Marriage record of the last couple was found in the Parish of Marloes, and after years had gone, the record of their burial.

It is a tradition among descendants in Wales as in Utah, that Elizabeth Ormond was a very good seamstress and was employed by the Rothchild family. One story came to me of how pride in accomplishment was severely dampened in the disappointment of those for whom she sewed. The father of the family asked his two young daughters if they would like to attend a certain ball to which both answered “Yes, Pa-pa,” with enthusiasm. He instructed them to send to London for all material for gowns and bonnets, which the happy maidens did. Grandmother sewed and sewed, giving the best of her talent to a perfect job and to finishing it at the appointed time. As the date of the ball drew near the father inquired if the daughters would be ready for the event and was assured they would. With great enthusiasm and anticipation, “Betsy” Ormond as she became generally around her home community, helped the girls to don their new “finery” for the great occasion. Inquiring if the daughters were ready and learning that they were, the father announced that he would call the carriage, and soon the young ladies joined their father in their place in said carriage. Thereupon, he asked, “ Are you now ready for the ball, are you sure you have everything?” Being again assured that they were, he said, “Then you may now go back to the house and take off your bonnets and gowns and you will know what it means to be disappointed.” Grandmother said that she did not know if the girls were more disappointed than she was or not.

Early in the missionary work of the Mormon Church in that land, missionaries found the Ormond family in Pembrokeshire. To this day, relatives point out the “Mormon Rocks” on the top of one of the hills near Haverfordwest where the people used to go to hear the missionaries speak and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Mary was the first of the family to embrace the new religion and was baptized the 31st of May 1843, followed by Dorothy on the 6th of May 1845. John Junior joined in July and our grandfather John Ormond was baptized 1 September 1845. Shortly thereafter, the oldest son, Richard, was married the first time to Mary Ann Grey and on March 31, 1847 the oldest daughter Mary was married to John Morris, a widower, and a Mormon missionary with one small daughter. The son William had already gone to work for a man who was impressed with his aptitude for caring for horses and whose interest in the young man was responsible for launching him into his career as a veterinary surgeon. The persecution heaped against the early converts of the Church and the urge to mingle with the body of the Church and worship in peace soon gave the Ormonds a desire to emigrate to Zion. Whether it twas because of her fear of crossing the ocean, which was given as the reason by relatives in Wales in 1959, or whether it was prejudice against the Mormons or both, Elizabeth Ormond refused to come with her husband to Utah. In the desperate hope of persuading her through the appeal to her mother love to follow her children, John Ormond arranged to virtually kidnap the younger children, including the three year old baby girl, and take them with him. The relatives in Wales claim that on the morning the father had decided to leave, his wife had gone to the market and taken her six year old son Charles with her. Dorothy, who was a member of the Church, was at home with her three younger sisters. It has been reported to me that Dorothy said it was the hardest thing she ever did, to take the children and desert their mother like that. When the mother returned home her little ones were gone. It seems that John Ormond had apparently gone to work as usual that morning, while his son John was working away from home at the time and joined the party according to plan.

A slight feeling of disrespect for John Ormond who deserted his wife and took the children with him to join the Mormons in Utah, still lingered in the old home territory in 1959. Butt when I explained to them that through all the ages, the greatest persecutions and the greatest sacrifices were made in the name of religion, and that John Ormond in the fervor and sincerity of his new faith risked all in the hope of winning all. Then fate went against him and three of his children died before reaching the land of his heart's desire and then his wife did not come as he had hoped, that he, too, must have suffered bitter disappointment, it seemed to look different to them. He had risked all in the desperate hope of having his wife and children all with him in the land of Zion. The poor mother must have suffered great anguish at losing even her baby. My heart aches for her but my admiration for her loyalty grew a bit when I learned that she did intend to follow her loved ones and set about to arrange her affairs and secure transportation. But before she could arrange ship reservations, word came back through friends that her baby, Elliner, and Letitia, then fifteen years old had died of cholera, she gave up the idea. The farm was turned over to Richard, the eldest living son, and our dear grandmother ever afterward known in Marloes as Betsy Ormond, moved to and operated a sweet shop to support herself and her little son Charles. This she continued to operate for many years, even after Charles went out to work and she married again.

In the meantime, more heartache overtook our forsaken and lonely grandmother, for her own mother died just a few months after her desertion. Yes, Elizabeth Cod, Betsy Ormond's mother, and wife of Tobias Codd died the 9th of May 1849. The death certificate bears silent witness that our grandmother Betsy Ormond was with her mother when she passed away. Then on February 19, 1853, Elizabeth Ormond, listed as a widow on her marriage certificate, married Thomas Phillips, a bachelor, aged 37 and she was 49. As I passed the clock tower in Marloes, a World War II Memorial, relatives pointed it out to me and told me that it stood where our grandmother operated her sweet shop. A few years later, William Ormond, having won his degree to practice as a veterinary surgeon, went to Wisconsin. He remained so bitter against his father and the Mormons that he refused in his own biography to acknowledge that his father was one, stating that his father and mother lived and died in their native land of Wales. This he knew to be false for I read a letter in the possession of Alice Price, granddaughter of John and Elizabeth Ormond, which William had written to his father in Utah - just a friendly letter showing forth a boastful pride in his own three children. William had deserted the English Army when he came to America and though he made one visit to his native land in the hope of seeing his mother again, he departed in haste when he learned that she had passed away. He was fearful of being recognized and called to account for his desertion. But he did go to the cemetery, and it was reported that he stood by his mother's grave and wept bitterly in disappointment. A few years after William came to the states, Charles also came to Wisconsin. There are quite a number of the descendants of these two Ormond brothers still living in Wisconsin at the date of writing (1960). Two sons remained near the mother, Richard living at the old home as long as he lived, and her son George lived till his death in Slade Lane, Haverfordwest. Our grandmother Elizabeth Codd Ormond died 11 June 1885, a little over two years after her former husband had passed away in Utah.