Elizabeth Gabbitass was the wife of John Gabbitass, a Windsor chair maker who moved in 1842 from Retford, Nottinghamshire to begin what was to become a major chair manufacturing trade in Worksop. She took over the workshop on her husbands death in 1837 and continued to run the business for many years, employing and training many of the Worksop makers who were to set up in business in their own right, including Benjamin Gilling and Isaac Allsop.