Elizabeth was a descendant of Erasmus Darwin, the 2nd Earl of Portmore, the Lord Monteagle who foiled the Gunpowder Plot and Charles Worsley of Platt, one of Oliver Cromwell's most trusted Major Generals, to whom was entrusted the Mace when Cromwell famously cried 'rid me of that bauble' in expelling the House of Commons in 1652.