Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson married William Gaskell in 1832. He was a junior minister at Cross Street Unitarian Chapel, Manchester. Together they had six children but only three survived. The couple remained busy for much of their lives because of her writing and his work as a minister. They were married for thirty-three years before her death.

Gaskell, Elizabeth. Mary Barton edited Jennifer Foster. 1848, Broadview Literary Texts.