After the death of her father in 1823, the family moved several times, eventually settling in Brighton. Elizabeth’s home background was of a strict Calvinist regime but under the influence of her brother she adopted a Tractarian position. In 1857 Elizabeth responded to a call from Fr Charles Fuge Lowder to establish a sisterhood to assist the clergy of St George in the East, Stepney. At that time she was running a small orphanage in Brighton and working in the parish of St Paul's Church, Brighton under the guidance of its priest, Fr Arthur Wagner. Leaving the future of the orphanage in the hands of her brother and the Sisters of St Margaret, on 14 April, Elizabeth, with a fourteen-year-old orphan set up house in Stepney. Later in the year three other women joined her and the bishop of London, Archibald Tait, gave her his blessing as Superior of the Community of the Holy Cross.