Elizabeth Sanderson was born in Leadenhall Street in London in 1793; a record of her birth was made at the parish church of All Hallows-on-the-Wall.

Her father was a "China tea merchant", and she had family connections dating back to Robert Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln.

Her husband, Cornelius, attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840 at which only men were allowed to speak.

[2] In 1887, Elizabeth and Charlotte Hanbury left the wilds and moved to the home of Cornelius, in Richmond, on the western outskirts of London.

Her long life was documented in The Times[6] and later reported in the Dictionary of National Biography[2] and in the Morning Post in Queensland.