Eliza Ann Priscilla Lemay (née Sledge) was born in Franklin County, North Carolina on January 14, 1809. She married Thomas Jefferson Lemay in 1828. After moving to Raleigh, her husband gained respect as the publisher and editor of newspaper The Raleigh Star and the North Carolina Gazette, which pushed them into various social circles, like that of the Cotten family. She died in Raleigh on March 3, 1857.