CFHS code : ML96
Parish : St Mary the Less
Inscription : To the Dear Memory of ANNE wife of the Rev WILLIAM BARBER who sweetly fell asleep in Jesus July 26 1900 aged 70 also of Rev WILLIAM BARBER preacher in Ceylon Africa and England b Nov 29 1830 d March 8 1916
Monument : Headstone/Kerb stones
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.202738, 0.13772631 – click here for location
Monument
This headstone stands to the south of the centre circle which is part of the parish of Mary the Less.
Inscription
To the Dear Memory of ANNE wife of the Rev WILLIAM BARBER who sweetly fell asleep in Jesus on July 26. 1900. Aged 70.
“To be with Christ is very far better.”
Also of Rev WILLIAM BARBER preacher of the gospel in Ceylon, Africa, and England.
Born Nov. 29. 1830. Died March 8. 1916.
“His servants shall serve Him and they shall see His face.”
Anne Barber (c.1830 – 26 July 1900)
Anne was born in Ledbury, Herefordshire and married methodist minister Rev. William Barber. He worked as a missionary in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) in 1852, and on health grounds was then stationed in South Africa from c.1859-1871. Anne and William had at least three sons: Dr Rev. William Theodore Aquila (1858-1945), Edward Gethyn (1859-1944) and Charles Alfred (1860-1933). They returned to Britain in 1871, and William worked at Brynmawr, Edinburgh, Redditch, Newcastle in Staffordshire, Newton, Gainsburgh, Blackburn, Barnoldswich in Yorkshire and North West Essex. In 1881 the family were living at Sidmouth Road, Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire and in 1891 at the Manse in Barnoldswich near Skipton, Yorkshire. In 1892 William took the role of supernumeracy minister (where he stepped back from day to day preaching) and he and Anne lived in St. Leonard’s, Hastings and Highgate before moving to Cambridge in 1895. Anne died aged 70 years old whilst on a visit to Manchester and announcements of her death said ‘suddenly but in perfect peace’.
Rev. William Barber (29 November 1830 – 8 March 1916)
William was born in Midsomer Norton in Somerset and baptised at the Ebenezer Wesleyan Chapel, King Street, Bristol on 31 July 1831. He was the son of methodist minster Aquila Barber and his wife Jane (née Bennett) and lived in Shropshire, Pembrokeshire and Staffordshire as a child. In 1851 he was working as an assistant in a school in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire before becoming a methodist minister in 1852. Eldest son Dr. Rev. William Barber was headmaster at the Leys School from 1898-1919 and William was living at the school in 1911. He later moved to live at 58 St. Barnabas Road and died at home aged 85 years old after ‘an illness of some months’. He was buried on 10 March and the Cambridge Independent Press reported ‘until about a year ago he used to attend the services at Hills-road Wesleyan Chapel, where he presided occasionally for a few years after coming to Cambridge. The Rev. Willilam Barber was very much respected by all who knew him and for his many years of successful work in the Wesleyan ministery’.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
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