Elizabeth Marshall
- Position
- Lady's Maid
- Years in President's House
- 1797 – 1801
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Female
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Presidency
- John Adams
- Biography
Elizabeth "Betsy" Marshall was born around 1784, in Massachusetts.1 She worked for First Lady Abigail Adams as a lady's maid, or personal attendant. In 1797, Abigail brought Betsy to the President’s House in Philadelphia alongside fellow lady’s maids, Betsy Howard and Becky Tirrell.2
In the fall of 1800, Betsy traveled to the White House ahead of the Adams family alongside Becky Tirrell to help set up the house for the family. At the White House Betsy slept in a small bed chamber next to Abigail’s bedroom.3 After leaving the White House she returned to Quincy, Massachusetts. In May 1805, she married Joseph Field and later gave birth to six children.4 Betsy died on December 15, 1880, in Quincy Massachusetts and was buried at Mount Wollaston Cemetery.5
- “Gravestone of Elizabeth (Marshall) Field,” Ancestry, accessed June 9, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/8607268/person/-923206530/media/a150dc38-2eb4-493c-9a3d-cca5a2ecc51b?queryId=52585e0a-5574-47b7-b06b-9e48ce1cd058&searchContextTreeId=&searchContextPersonId=&_phsrc=OuO255&_phstart=successSource; Waldo Chamberlain Sprague, Genealogies of the families of Braintree, Mass., 1640-1859: including the modern towns of Randolph & Holbrook and the city of Quincy, after the separation from Braintree in 1791-1793, (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historical Genealogical Society, 2001), 566, https://digital-americanancestors-org.nehgs.idm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15869coll33/id/24277.
- “Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, April 30, 1797,” Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12, 100, https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-04-12-02-0064#sn=20.
- “Abigail Adams to Cotton Tufts, November 28, 1800," Adams Family Correspondence, volume 14, 456, https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-04-14-02-0207#sn=4.
- “Elizabeth Marshall,” Ancestry, accessed July 22, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/8607268/person/-923206530/facts?_phsrc=OuO294&_phstart=successSource.
- “Death Record Elizabeth Marshall,” Ancestry, accessed June 9, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/8607268/person/-923206530/media/ec190550-05d7-4a07-97b3-ea602211ff44?queryId=ad8c359b-a3a2-432b-981d-236f448a6ad4&searchContextTreeId=&searchContextPersonId=&_phsrc=OuO261&_phstart=successSource.
- Birthplace
- Quincy, Massachusetts, USA
- Mount Wollaston Cemetery
- Related Workers
- Rebecca TirrellValets, Lady's Maids, and First Family Attendants, 1797 – 1801
- Elizabeth HowardValets, Lady's Maids, and First Family Attendants, 1800 – 1801
- Related Association Content
- https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-households-of-john-adams