TEMPLE, Elizabeth (c. 1808-1884) and (first husband) James L. (c. 1814-before 1862) and (second husband) Ransom HICKS (1802-1872)

Elizabeth Temple was an active layperson in Boston and a physician. The earliest mention of Elizabeth Temple in church records dates from 1849, when she experienced a remarkable healing following prayer and anointing by a small group of believers, including Ellen and James White. Ellen White described Elizabeth Temple as “very poor,” taking in “washing to earn means to sustain her family” and married to a “confirmed drunkard.” Yet 20 years later, in a striking turnaround, Elizabeth Temple, of 41 Shawmut Ave., Boston, was registered in the 1869 Boston Directory as a “physician,” and with a substantial $12,000 in real estate holdings, according to the 1870 census. That it was the same Elizabeth Temple as the one healed in 1849 is confirmed by the mention in the Review that Sabbath services were held in 1870 at “Sr. Temple's, 41 Shawmut Avenue, Boston.”1EGWLM 897.1

After Elizabeth Temple became a woman of some means, Ellen White sent at least two testimonies reminding her that she had not “borne well the test of prosperity” and was “robbing God in tithes and offerings.” To one of these letters Mrs. Temple responded publicly in the Review, acknowledging that the testimony was “true.” On the positive side, Elizabeth showed her devotion to the church by opening up her home for church services for many years and for the frequent hospitality she showed to visiting preachers, including James and Ellen White when they were in Boston.1EGWLM 897.2

Given her positive contributions to the church, it is surprising that Elizabeth Temple's second marriage, in the late 1860s, was to Ransom Hicks. A fairly well-known oppositional figure, Ransom Hicks had joined the offshoot Messenger Party in the 1850s and continued to write against Seventh-day Adventists in the 1860s. There are hints, however, that Mrs. Temple may have become estranged from the church following misunderstandings over a large donation that she had made in 1864. Nevertheless, by the end of 1868 her problems with the church were cleared up, and Elizabeth decisively broke with Ransom by divorcing him.1EGWLM 897.3

See: Obituary: “Elizabeth Temple,” Review, Feb. 24, 1885, p. 127; 1850 U.S. Federal Census, “James L. Temple,” Massachusetts, Suffolk County, Boston, Ward 10, p. 343; Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts [vol. 2], pp. 109, 110; Lt 5, 1849 (Apr. 21); Lt 25, 1868 (Dec. 2); Lt 39, 1874 (July 6); Lt 34, 1897 (June 8); The Boston Directory … 1869 (Boston: Sampson, Davenport, & Co.), p. 595; 1870 U.S. Federal Census, “Elizabeth Temple,” Massachusetts, Suffolk County, Boston, Ward 10, p. 234; search term “E. Temple” and “Elizabeth Temple” in Review and Herald online collection, www.adventistarchives.org; “Sr. E. Temple … to Sr. White,” Review, Mar. 2, 1869, p. 79; N. Orcutt, “Report of Labor,” Review, Aug. 2, 1870, p. 51. On Ransom Hicks, see First Record Book of the Society of Colonial Dames in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation (Providence, R.I.: Snow & Farnham, Printers, 1897), p. 126; “From Bro. Hicks,” Messenger of Truth, Nov. 2, 1854, p. [4]; “A Correction,” Review, May 14, 1867, p. 275; “Personal,” Review, Oct. 4, 1864, p. 148; John Nevins Andrews et al., Defense of Elder James White and Wife, pp. 17, 18.1EGWLM 897.4