Full Name: Lady Salisbury, Elizabeth “Beth” Benton

 
AKAs: Elyse Hollister, Elizabeth O’Shea, Diana Berry, Emily Strickland
 
DOB: March 18, 1722

 
Apparent Age: 27

 
True Age: 286

 
Sex: Female       

 
Hair color: Blonde

 
Eye Color: Light Blue

 
Height: 5’6”

 
Weight: 125 lbs

Nationality: English

 
Residence: Penryn, Cornwall, England

 
Close Friends: Néomi Lanielle, Stephan Creswell, Elaine Alden

 
Teacher: Stephen Creswell; Elaine Alden         

 
Watcher: Néomi Lanielle

 
Languages: English, Italian, French, German, Latin, Brazilian Portuguese

 
Personality: Elizabeth exudes a quiet confidence. She knows who she is as a person. She is someone who can be trusted, can be a confidant. Even though she can be somewhat quiet, she does enjoy going out and having fun. She likes the expensive things in life. Her mortal life was full of creature comforts anyone would wish for, but it wasn’t something she could shake as an Immortal it had become so ingrained. She knows how to go without, but if she doesn’t have to she won’t.

 
Fighting, for her, is last resort. She doesn’t enjoy it, but people seem to underestimate her because she’d rather walk away. She does know how to fight. She will do what she has to do to survive. She is friendly and is loyal to those she calls friend. The romantic view she had on life when she was mortal has now vanished due to becoming an Immortal, though she is still somewhat of an idealist.
 
Any Special Skills: writer of literary criticism and fiction, singer, dancer, actress, acrobat, military nurse, accomplished horseback rider 

 
Participation in The Game (Good, Evil, Neutral): Good

 
Number of Quickenings: 136

 
Weapon of Choice: Falchion and Dagger


 
History: 

 
England, March 1722- The Marquess of Salisbury and his wife take in an infant and name her Elizabeth. She grows up privileged and well educated. She’s smart and has a rather idealistic, even somewhat romantic view on life.

 
England, May 1735- At the age of 13, Elizabeth is caught in a barn that has caught fire. She suffers from smoke inhalation and has some minor burns. But the fear of being caught up in the inferno scars her and she is scared of fire, even to warm her own room.

 
England, September 1741- She is considered unmarriageable when it is found out that she is having a relationship with a man. A man she thought she was going to marry. Her reputation within the titled, upper class of London is ruined. She goes to very few parties, knowing full well she would be prey to the gossipmongers. So, she is “put on the shelf” at the age of 19.

 
England, June 1749- Elizabeth is shot by highwaymen on her way back to the Duke of Somerset’s home, Dunster Castle. The Duke, Stephan Creswell, is there when it happens and brings her back to his home. He tells her what she has become, which is a total shock to her. She goes to her sister, Georgiana, and tells her what has happened. Georgiana is horrified and tells their father, James, and the Marquess curses Elizabeth and what she is, saying he should have never caved into Emily, Elizabeth’s mother. It is here that she finds out that she had been adopted. She goes to Stephan to tell him what has happened. He tells her that the life she had been living was now over. She was no longer Lady Salisbury. He promised that he would take care of her and teach her everything she would need to survive in her Immortal existence from that point forward.

 
British Colony of Georgia, Savannah, August 1749- Elizabeth and Stephan buy a plantation from a family that can no longer run it. It is dilapidated, but they get it going once again. They tell their neighbors they are husband and wife and a true relationship does blossom between them. Here is where most of Elizabeth’s training happens. And it is here that she receives her sword, a falchion.

 
Georgia 1753- Stephan’s’ teacher, Elaine Alden, comes for a visit. She and Elizabeth get on well. Elizabeth leaves Stephan and goes with Elaine to Paris to continue her training. It is a good move for Elizabeth to finally have a female Immortal with whom she could relate to. Elaine liked the high life and Elizabeth is back in her element.

 
Paris 1757- Elizabeth leaves Elaine now that she learned all that she can from her friend. Elaineand Elizabeth run into each other several times over the years.


 
Boston 1770- Having married a colonial merchant, Elizabeth is happily settled with the young man, Thomas Strickland, who now ran his father’s printing business. Elizabeth opens a milliner shop to cater to the upper class of ladies within the city. Once the British start taxing goods and causing nothing but hassle and headaches, business wasn’t going so well. Once the “Boston Massacre” occurs, Elizabeth knows war isn’t far behind. Since her husband sees himself as a Patriot, he signs up with the local militia and fights in many skirmishes miraculously keeping himself alive only to die several years later from consumption.

 
Province of Quebec, Canada 1791- Elizabeth settles into the upper portion of Quebec with the other British settlers that had fled during the American Revolution. She finds herself employed by a very rich family, tutoring their 6 children. The mother, Margaret, starts up a friendship with her and they become close friends.

 
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 1817- Elizabeth finds a nice home to move into and busies herself with remodeling. She spends her time here working on her writing, mostly fiction and some critiques. The Americans who have settled within the city embrace her and she makes many friends during this rather peaceful time.

 
Berlin, Germany 1823- Elizabeth settles into Berlin, finding work as a maid for a young woman with parents who are wealthy from the new Industrial boom in the city. She catches wind of a philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who is teaching at the University of Berlin. When she can, she sneaks into his lectures and eventually approaches him to tell him how much she appreciates his insight. Hegel takes Elizabeth under his wing, teaching and discussing with her his ideas. Soon, she finds herself writing about his concepts of “absolute idealism”, “Spirit”, “Master/Slave dialectic”, “ethical life”, and the importance of history. Though, not one piece of her work is ever submitted to publishers.

 
Portland, OR 1837- Elizabeth has made her way westward through harsh conditions and settles in Portland. A widow named Mary Summers takes her in. Mary needs someone to help her run the trading post that her husband had run for so many years. Elizabeth gladly takes the work and sticks around for a couple of years.

 
Vienna, Austria 1845- Elizabeth works as a nanny for a very wealthy couple. She enjoys her time with the three children. But too soon, they must part. In 1848 Vienna is in upheaval and Elizabeth and the family have to go their separate ways.

 
Newport, RI 1862- The Civil War rages on as the US Naval fleet settles into Newport. Elizabeth owns a cotton mill factory that is affected by the war due to the lack of raw cotton coming from the Southern states that had seceded the Union. Once the war is over, the industry booms once again.

 
Hyeres, France 1883- Elizabeth meets Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife, Fanny, during a summer retreat to the Côte d’Azur. Mr. Stevenson is quite ill by this time. They all become good friends over the season. Elizabeth helps Fanny and Robert when needed and enjoys their time together. She remains in contact with the Stevenson’s through the rest of Robert’s years alive and attends his funeral when he passes.

 
Dublin, Ireland 1912- Elizabeth falls deeply in love and eventually marries Quinn O’Shea, a young doctor. They meet in a charity ward as she is tending and nursing those who are less fortunate. In 1914, he enlists in the British army to help fight back the Germans in France. He dies a year after enlisting. Elizabeth had only seen him a couple of times before his death. She feels the loss deeply because Quinn was one of the very few she had trusted with her secret.

 
New York City & France 1920’s- Elizabeth is fully involved in the “Lost Generation” scene. She had been thoroughly disillusioned by WWI, having lost her husband because of it. It is at this time she begins to take her writing more seriously. She writes literary criticisms on the literature coming from Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Waldo Pierce and many others of their ilk. Some could be scathing and others raving with praise. Not many paid attention to what she had to say. Only a couple of magazines seemed to accept her writing.

 
Mid-West, USA 1931- She is part of a traveling carnival. She is employed as an acrobat and earns what she can. Here is where she meets the Immortal, Amanda Darieux. Elizabeth stays with the traveling carnival and sees much of the Mid-Western USA. She has her own money, though even she had felt the bite on Black Tuesday, and she helps some of the very destitute on her travels.

 
Pearl Harbor, HI 1940- Elizabeth has spent the last several years training to be a naval nurse in the US Navy. She runs into her teacher Stephan Creswell in Pearl Harbor, who is now reincarnated himself as a doctor. They work closely together after the attack on Pearl Harbor and through much of World War II in the Pacific Theater. Stephan and Elizabeth are eventually separated and stationed in different areas of the Pacific theater. They do run into each other a couple more times over the decades.

 
London 1953- Elizabeth is part of the London debut of “The King and I,” by Rodgers and Hammerstein. She is the understudy for the character Anna and is part of the chorus. She plays Anna 223 times during the 926 shows at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

 
New York City, NY 1968- Working in the theater/musical world, she goes from one off-Broadway show to another. Such an existence doesn’t bring in much money, so she works in any restaurant or bar that will hire her in-between finding her next show.

 
São Paulo, Brazil 1983- Living in the largest city in the country of Brazil, Elizabeth finds herself in the midst of a military ruled country. She opens a bookstore in the borough of Sé, which is the historic downtown. By the end of 1985, she leaves the country due the instability of the country whose military based government had been overthrown.

 
Boston, MA 1995- Attending Boston College, Elizabeth works on her PhD in English Lit. She had kept her writing up over the years even if she was involved in other pursuits. She never lost her love for books and how they could affect society.

 
Penryn, Cornwall, England Present Day- Elizabeth, now known as Dr. Benton, has been settled in the maritime town for a couple of years now, after spending some time teaching in London. She now spends her time working on her writing, both fiction and literary criticism. When she is asked, Beth will give lectures at universities around Europe and the United States.

 

 
[/color]Played by Sarah