In 1767 Charles Burney eloped to marry for a second time, to Elizabeth Allen, the wealthy widow of a King's Lynn wine merchant. Allen had three children of her own, and several years after the marriage the two families merged into one. This new domestic situation was fraught with tension. The Burney children found their new stepmother overbearing and quick to anger, and they took refuge by making fun of her behind her back. However, their collective unhappiness served in some respects to bring them closer to one another. In 1774 the family moved again, to what had been the house of Isaac Newton in St Martin's Street, Westminster.