| Biographical Notes |
Elizabeth taught in the school established for girls at Glenunga before her marriage. Matthew Rankine, a family friend, wrote in his diary on 26.4.1860 "Elizabeth Ferguson came here this morning and stayed all night. Her father called for her."
Elizabeth was engaged to Andrew Tennant, but broke off the engagement. On 28.8.1862 he married one of the daughters of William Ferguson of Myrtle Bank, a sister-in-law to Elizabeth's cousin James. "Poor Rachel", Elizabeth is reported to have said, while Andrew said, "If I can't have one Ferguson, then I'll have another!" It was 12 years before Elizabeth contemplated marriage again, this time to James Murdoch whose sister had married Elizabeth's brother some 20 years earlier. The Murdoch family arrived in South Australia in 1851 and settled near Smithfield.
Elizabeth married James Murdoch on 20.2.1874 "at the residence of Mrs D Ferguson, Glenunga." Amongst the wedding presents was a silver tea and coffee service, engraved from "Uncle John Ferguson" from her cousin John Ferguson of Cluden, Melbourne. After their marriage, Elizabeth moved to Smithfield, where James had a property. Their only child, William Ferguson Murdoch, was born in 1875. On 25.9.1876, less than three years after their marriage, James Murdoch died, kicked by a horse. He was buried at Angle Vale, near Smithfield. Elizabeth's son, William, then 11 months, carried a scar in the shape of a horseshoe.
There was no will and Elizabeth went back to Glenunga to live with her mother, taking her son with her. When her mother died in 1885, she left Elizabeth "all the furniture and effects in and about the bedroom I now occupy (except the chest of drawers in my said bedroom) and I also give and bequeath to my said daughter the seat now on the veranda and also the washing copper mangle and all my crockery."
Elizabeth had a glass eye; the result of an accident wood chopping and as she grew older, was very deaf. When her cousin Marjorie arrived in Adelaide in 1904, she recorded in her diary "Mrs Murdoch met us at the pier ... Mrs Murdoch is very deaf and the other sister is getting deaf too ... Poor Mrs Murdoch was so glad to see mother and made her sit beside her."
Elizabeth's sister Janet died in 1912 and bother Alexander in 1913. Elizabeth remained at Glenunga with her remaining sister Margaret, where she died on 13.8.1916, aged 83. She is buried at St Saviours. She left "the old Glenunga House, with the little paddock attached and my household furniture and effects ... for my sister Margaret Umpherston for her use, during her life and after her decease for my son William Ferguson Murdoch absolutely." £2,307
Elizabeth left £200 to the children of her sister Mary Goldsack and £20 to Mrs Robert Goldsack of Wattle, St Fullarton. She left £20 to Mrs E. Clark, daughter of her brother James, with £15 to each of his other daughters. Smaller bequests were made to charity; £10 to the Home for Incurables at Fullarton, Chalmers Church and the Presbyterian Church of Australia for the use of missionaries to the aborigines at Port George, "or any other mission that may take the place thereof."
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