Also known as: Eliza Jane Locke (also spelled Lock), Mrs. Geo. Woodroffe also spelled Woodroff or Woodruff or Woodruffe, possibly Mrs. Lizzie Woodroffe
Born: February 23, 1836, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Died: May 6, 1917, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Nationality: American
Family: Locke, Woodroffe
Glassworking relatives:
- Oliver Locke (brother)
- Charles A. Woodroffe (brother-in-law)
- Elizabeth T. Woodroffe (sister-in-law)
- George A. Woodroffe (husband)
- William Woodroffe (brother-in-law)
Active: [1854-1876]
Associated acts:
- The Bohemian Troupe of Fancy Glass Blowers1
- [Woodroffe Brothers’ Celebrated American and Bohemian Glass Exhibition]
Brief biography
Eliza Woodroffe was born Eliza Jane Locke to James Sullivan Locke and Abby Locke (née Lewis) in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 23, 1836. Her father was a silversmith. She was one of at least six children, and was the older sister of itinerant glassworker Oliver Locke. She married George Woodroffe on September 25, 1854, in Boston. They lived with her widowed mother and siblings until her mother’s death in 1866.
The Woodroffes had two children together: Winifred, born December 1855 or 1856, and George Alexander, born January 22, 1877. Woodroffe demonstrated glassmaking alongside her spouse for at least several years, including during a tour in Jamaica.
After she was widowed, Woodroffe lived with her son, a stationer. She and her daughter ran a dried goods store around the corner from their home. Woodroffe died on May 6, 1917, in Boston, Massachusetts.
