Eliza Jane Humphreys was born March 14, 1843, at Grahamstown, South Africa, the daughter of Joseph Richard Humphreys and Charlotte Elizabeth Poulton. She joined the LDS Church and came to Salt Lake City where she worked for a well-to-do family. There she met Thomas, who was their gardener.

On November 30, 1864, Eliza and Thomas Jessop were married in Salt Lake City. Thomas's brother, Richard, had been married a few days earlier; and the two couples traveled to Millville by ox team and lived together in the same log cabin until after their first children were born.

Thomas was a native of South Stoke, Lincolnshire, England, the son of Edward and Frances Millward Jessop. He came to America in 1861 and worked in New York at a broom factory to earn money to come to Utah. He and his brother, Richard, came to Millville in 1862. Thomas was involved in raising broom corn, and he helped establish a United Order Broom Factory in Millville. He, with others, built and operated the first sawmill in Millville Canyon. He and his brother, Edward, found work with the Great Northern Railroad; and they both later became railroad contractors. They began with wheelbarrows; but they soon had dump carts and scrapers, owned more than 200 horses and mules, and employed 400 men. Their work extended from Utah to Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Thomas loved music and drama, and he was a member of the Calico Troupe.

On November 15, 1869, Thomas married Margaret Eve Shaffer as a plural wife.

Thomas was married a third time on April 10, 1879, to Annie Jenson Hjorth Anderson.

Children of Thomas and Eliza Jane were: Charlotte, Annie Frances (Frederick T. Yeates), Thomas Edward (Marian Holt), Alice, Eliza Vilate (John Theurer), Joseph Albert (Frances Louisa Cummings), Ephriam (Sylvia Chance Yeates), Josephine, Arthur, Emily, Ernest Wilford (Martha Adelaide Smith) and Lillie.