Wickham House: Elizabeth Selden Maclurg Wickham (Bettina)

Elizabeth Selden Maclurg Wickham, known as Bettina or Betsey, was born on October 10, 1815, to John Wickham and his second wife, Elizabeth Selden McClurg Wickham. She was the 13th child of John’s 19 children, and the first girl born in the recently completed Wickham House.  

By age 14, she developed a “curvature of the spine” severe enough that she and her father traveled to Baltimore to obtain an apparatus designed to “help cases like hers.” It did help, although she remained in ill health for much of her life.  

John Wickham, in an 1830 letter to his friend, the politician and plantation owner Littleton Waller Tazwell (namesake of Bettina’s beloved younger brother), explained that he and Bettina traveled to Baltimore to obtain a new apparatus that was designed to help “cases like hers” – likely to help adjust her spinal position. Indeed, Wickham reported in this letter, his daughter was “already much better since she began to use the apparatus.” 

Despite her health limitations, Bettina was social, participating in large gatherings and maintaining many friendships. She enjoyed reading and writing – particularly to her younger brother Littleton Waller Tazwell Wickham. It is from these letters to her brother and others that we learn about life at the Wickham House, their finances, local gossip, national news and sometimes the lives of those enslaved by the Wickhams.  

On occasion, Bettina directly shared her worldview or news of government affairs. In an undated letter, she relayed to Littleton that, “Genl. Scott says there’ll be no war, The Whigs, he declares, have saved the country or perhaps ‘twas that he said the opposition had done so.” Bettina maintained an interest in her family’s financial well-being too. Letters between her and Littleton would reference the wheat crop and weather suitability for a good harvest, as well as the profits from settling their father’s estate. 

Bettina never married, possibly because of her poor health, and she lived at home with her mother Elizabeth. 

At 38-years old, Bettina died at the Warm Springs in Bath County, Virginia on September 8, 1853, shortly after the August 1853 death of her mother. News of Bettina’s passing left grief in its wake. Her sister, Julia, wrote to William Fanning Wickham that, “The death of my beloved Betsey is such a grief to me I hardly can write – even to you. I am so sorry I am not able to do anything for her who I loved so tenderly – and who was so worthy of the love of all who knew her.”  

Three days after Julia sent that letter, Bettina’s obituary was published in the Richmond Whig.  

“In the death of this amiable and most interesting young lady, her many warm friends have cause to mourn, not for her, but for themselves. The victim of long and painful ill health, illustrated by the most unaffected meekness, patience and humility, under all the trials to which it subjected her temper, death had no terrors, and the grave no victory over her. Farewell, gentle being, you are lost to sight it is true, but the pure walk of your life, your unvarying kindness to all, and pious discharge of every duty in life, will enshrine you in memory forever.” 

Bettina is buried at the Wickham family plot in Richmond’s Shockoe Hill Cemetery. 

Consider This…

• What was healthcare like in the early 19th century? 
• Based on what we know about Bettina, how much control over her own life do you think she had? 
• Bettina wrote many letters to her brother. How do you think they would stay in touch today? 

Sources

• John Wickham, letter to Littler Waller Tazwell (Library of Virginia Tazwell Family Collection Box 8, 1830). 
• Elizabeth Selden Maclurg Wickham, letters to Littleton Waller Tazwell Wickham and Eliza Wickham (Virginia Museum of History and Culture Mss1W6326cFA2 Box 7, various dates), https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/599405:6697?tid=&pid=&queryId=983d07806140a372d91488e6e2e0457d&_phsrc=xVy7&_phstart=successSource 
• Gibson Worsham, “Warm Springs Bath Houses” (National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, Washington, DC, 2017) Section 8, Page 27. 
• Obituary, Richmond Whig, 1853. 
• Photo of grave, unknown photographer, unknown date (21st century). 
• Julia Wickham Leigh, letter to William Fanning Wickham (Virginia Museum of History and Culture Mss1W6326cFA2 Box 2, Brooklyn, September 14, 1853).