CFHS code : ED7
Parish : St Edward
Inscription : In Loving Memory of JAMES CARELESS d 19 May 1875 aged 79 CHARLES HENRY CARELESS son of above d 27 July 1854 aged 34 LOUISA SUTTON daughter of above d 18 Mar 1861 aged 31 also ANN beloved wife of above JAMES CARELESS d 29 Apr 1879 in her 85th year
Monument : Headstone
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.203109, 0.13756852 – click here for location
Monument
This headstone, its rounded head decorated with a panel of carved foliage, standing on a plinth, in the parish area of St Edward, is located beside the central path to the west, about 25 yards north of the centre circle. According to the grave book, Charles Henry (the earliest burial) was interred in plot 9, and Louisa, James and Ann in plot 10, but all four are inscribed on the one headstone.
Inscription
In loving memory of James Careless
died May 19 1875 aged 79 years
Charles Henry Careless son of the above
died July 27 1854 aged 34 years
Louisa Sutton daughter of the above
died March 18 1861 aged 31 years
Also Ann the beloved wife of the above James Careless
who departed this life April 29 1879 in the 85th year of her life
Dearly beloved of all her family
Relationships: Charles Henry and Louisa were children of James and Ann.
Three other monuments exist in Mill Road Cemetery with the surname Careless: (Selina Naomi Bennett, Arthur Charles, Charles, Herbert James, and Mary Careless, Elizabeth Haynes), (Esther Ann and Samuel Charles Careless) and (Edith Maud, Thomas and Vera May Careless).
James Careless (c.1795-1875)
James was born c.1795 in Little Shelford, a village 6 miles south of Cambridge, and baptised there on 14 February, son of John Careless, labourer, and his wife Hannah. He had at least twelve siblings: Elizabeth (c.1789‒), William (c.1791‒), Daniel (c.1792‒), Susanna (c.1793‒), Mary (c.1797‒), Jane (c.1799‒), John (1802‒), Esther (c.1804‒), Frances (c.1806‒), Sophia (c.1808‒), Thomas (c.1812‒) and Richard (c.1814‒).
James married Ann (maiden name unknown), probably in the late 1810s. The couple had at least seven children, of whom Charles Henry (c.1820‒54) (see below) seems to have been the first. Subsequently they had Ann (c.1822‒), John (c.1824‒26), Louisa (c.1826‒61) (see below) and Jane (c.1830‒), all of whom were baptised at the church of St Andrew the Great in Cambridge, where the family was living in Emanuel Lane in 1825 and in Green Street in 1830. During the 1820s, James’s occupation is described only as ‛servant’.
In the mid-1830s two more baptisms are recorded, this time at All Saints’ Church (then on St John Street, opposite that college’s frontage). These were Thomas (1835), who died a month later, when James is described as of ‛Blue Boar Yard, waiter’ (the Blue Boar being a hotel at 17 Trinity Street); and Bryant Thomas (1836), who died at 16 months, when James is described as ‛of Gifford Place, corporation servant’. (Gifford Place ran north from Green Street to the back of the Blue Boar ‒ it exists still today, much changed.)
In the 1841 census James is given the standard form of ‛M[ale] S[ervant]’. But by the 1851 census his profession is noted as ‛college servant’, and a decade later this becomes ‛Fellows’ Butler, Corpus College’, and appropriately he was living at 10 Free School Lane, behind the college. Since in 1861 he is again simply ‛college servant’, it is possible that he was in service to Corpus Christi College for at least 10, if not 20-plus years.
By 1861 he and his family were living at 8 Downing Street, where with James, wife Ann and daughter Ann were a grandson (James W Harper, son of Jane), a grand daughter (Annie Jane Flora, son of Charles Henry), two ‛gentlewomen’ lodgers, and a servant. By 1871 James, still at the same address, is described as ‛lodging house keeper’ with one lodger, the children and grandchildren having departed.
James died on 19 May 1875, aged 79, and his body was buried on the 25th of the month in row XXXIII of the parish area of St Edward, in plot 10 at a depth of 8 feet. Ann survived him by four years.
Charles Henry Careless (c.1820-1854)
Charles Henry was born c.1820, birthplace unclear (the 1851 census improbably gives Southampton). He was the son (possibly the first child) of James Careless (see above), and his wife Ann (see below).
Charles Henry married Emily Elizabeth Thorn of Southend-on-Sea, Essex, on 15 November 1846 at St Thomas Charterhouse, Finsbury, Middlesex. In 1848 and 1849 the couple were living in Melbourne Place, Cambridge, and in 1851 on St Andrew’s Hill, where they had what looks like a lodging house, with four lodgers (a college cook and three undergraduates) and two servants. They had at least five children, including Robert Frederick and Annie Jane Flora (bapt. St Andrew the Less, 1848, 1849), Dennis, Edith Mary and Charles Walkden (bapt. St Andrew the Great, 1851, 1851, 1855), of whom Edith died aged 4. In1848‒51, Charles’s profession is given equally as ‛college servant’ and ‛bookbinder’.
Charles Henry died on 27 July 1854 aged 34, and his body was buried on 1 August in Mill Road Cemetery, in row XXXIII of the St Edward parish area, in plot 9 at a depth of 6 feet. His address at the time of death was Elm Street (between Emanuel Road and Eden Street).
(Daughter Annie Jane Flora, ‛teacher’, married William Dyer, builder’s agent, in St Clement Dane’s Church, Westminster, on 5 October 1876, but died three years later in Marylebone, aged 27. Emily Elizabeth is given in the 1861 and 1871 censuses as ‛teacher’ and ‛schoolmistress’. At the 1881 census, she was living at 5 Glyside Terrace, Battersea, as housekeeper to her widowed son-in-law William Dyer, with one servant. But she was back in Cambridge at the time of her death in the first quarter of 1891, aged 69, having outlived Charles Henry by 27 years.
Louisa Sutton (née Careless) (c.1826-1861)
Louisa Careless was born in Cambridge c.1826, and baptised on 30 September 1827 in the church of St Andrew the Great, daughter of James Careless (see above) and Ann Careless (see below).
Louisa married William Sutton, master carpenter of Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire, in the third quarter of 1850, and in 1851 the couple were living at the Six Bells public house, Fulbourn, William having a live-in apprentice and employing three men.
Louisa died on 18 March 1861, aged about 34 (despite the inscription giving ‛31’), and was buried on the 25th of the month in Mill Road Cemetery, in row XXXIII of the St Edward parish area, in plot 10 at a depth of 9 feet.
Ann Careless (c.1795-1879)
Ann was born c.1795 in Cambridge. Nothing is yet known of her family name, origins or childhood. She married James Careless (see above), probably in the late 1810s. In 1825 the couple were living in Emanuel Lane, throughout the 1830s and early 1840s in Gifford Place (off Green Street), by 1848 in Melbourne Place (opposite Parker’s Piece), and by 1851 at 10 Free School Lane. James seems to have been a waiter at the Blue Boar Hotel on Trinity Street, and later a butler at Corpus Christi College.
By 1861 the couple had moved to 8 Downing Street, where they were taking in high-class lodgers. Ann must have done much of the housekeeping work, with the aid of one servant, because James was still working as a college servant. By 1871, with James aged 73 and Ann 75, James was officially identified as the ‛lodging house keeper’.
The couple had at least seven children: Charles Henry (c.1820‒54) (see above), Ann (c.1822‒), John (c.1824‒26), Louisa (c.1826‒61) (see above), Jane (c.1830‒), Thomas (1835‒35) and Bryant Thomas (1836‒37). Of these, Charles Henry married in 1846, and from that marriage resulted at least five grandchildren for James and Ann: Robert Frederick, Annie Jane Flora, Dennis, Edith Mary and Charles Walkden. Jane married Robert Harper in 1852 and that resulted in at least one grandchild: James W Harper. It is unclear whether Louisa had any children.
Ann died on 29 April 1879, aged 84, and her body was buried on 6 May in Mill Road Cemetery, in row XXXIII of the parish area of St Edward at a depth of 7 feet. In the burial register her address at the time of death is given as Dudley (Worcestershire). There is no immediate connection between the Careless and Dudley families, unless it be an Anne Careless of Cambridge who was married at the Church of St Andrew the Great in 1869 to a Theophilus Tinsley, wine merchant of Dudley; by 1871 Anne and Theophilus were living at 191 Wolverhampton Road, Dudley. The epitaph to her inscription suggests more than conventional affection.
[If you have any information about these persons, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]
Sources:
England census returns 1841 to 1881
England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538‒1975 (James; Louisa; Charles Walkden)
England, Select Marriages, 1538‒1973 (Charles/Emily; Louisa/William Sutton; Annie Jane/William Dyer)
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837‒1915 (Charles/Emily)
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837‒1915 (Emily; Annie Jane)
Church of St Edward, Cambridge, burial register (James, Ann, Charles Henry) and grave book (James, Ann, Charles Henry, Louisa)
Church of St Andrew the Great, Cambridge, baptismal register (Ann, John, Louisa, Jane, Dennis, Edith Mary, Charles Walkden), marriage register (Ann/Theophilus), burial register (John, Edith Mary)
Church of St Andrew the Less, Cambridge, baptismal register (Robert Frederick, Annie Jane)
Church of All Saints, Cambridge, baptismal and burial registers (Thomas, Bryant Thomas)
Church of All Saints, Little Shelford, baptismal register (James and siblings)
Communication from Mary Naylor
By Ian Bent