CFHS code : AS157

Parish : All Saints

Inscription : Sacred to the Memory of AARON JACOBS d September 22 1871 aged 71 and MARY his wife d August 6 1876 aged 74 also MARY MARIA KEMP their daughter d August 28 1876 aged 38 and WILLIAM KEMP her husband d June 16 1872 aged 36

Monument : Headstone/Ground slab

Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey

Jacobs grave
Jacobs and Kemp headstone

Monument

Inscription

Sacred to the Memory of AARON JACOBS died September 22 1871 aged 71

And MARY his wife died August 6 1876 aged 74

Also MARY MARIA KEMP their daughter died August 28 1876 aged 38

And WILLIAM KEMP her husband died June 16 1872 aged 36

Although the grave monument reads Jacobs, the census records and official records of the time document the family name as Jacob.

Aaron Jacob (c.1800 – 22 September 1871)

Aaron was born in Mottistone on the Isle of Wight and married Mary Hill in Lymington, Hampshire in 1837.  By 1840 they had moved to Jesus Lane, Cambridge and Aaron was working as a college porter.  By at least 1851  they had moved to 3 Malcolm Street and the couple had at least two children: Mary Maria (1838-1876) and Thomas Edward (1841-1914).

In  June 1868 both Mary and Aaron  were called as witnesses at the inquest into the death of  19 year old Priscilla Tuffill.  Priscilla had drowned herself in the River Cam, and had been working as a domestic servant for Aaron and Mary for the previous 12 months.  According to her stepfather Joseph Sewell she had been acting out of character for three or four years. He told the jury ‘when she felt rather low, she would be sullen. Three years last October she made an attempt in the same way to drown herself’.  She had been in service to the Jacob family where it was said ‘Mrs Jacobs (sic) was attached to her and she was attached to Mrs Jacobs (sic) and stayed there’.  One week before her death Priscilla had gone out and not returned until 1.30am.  Aaron told the jury that she had been brought home by a young man, and Priscilla said she did not know where they had been.  He said ‘I did not scold her, but told her to take a candle and go to bed. She had had warning to leave’.  Mary told the inquest that Priscilla had been working out her notice and for the last two months had not wanted to do any tasks.  She had told Mary that ‘she had a great wish to go to goal or anywhere where she would not have so much to do’. A verdict of ‘suicide whilst in a fit of temporary insanity’ was returned.

Aaron died at Malcolm Street aged 71 years.

Mary Jacob (née Hill) (c.1805 –  6 August 1876)

Mary was born in Lymington and married Aaron Jacob when she was c.32 years old. She died at 3 Malcolm Street a few years after her husband.

Aaron and Mary’s granddaughter Marion Emily Jacob (daughter of Thomas Jacob) is also buried at Mill Road Cemetery

William Kemp (1836 – 16 June 1872)

William was the son of agricultural labourer Thomas Kemp and his wife Susan. He was born in Chrishall, Essex and baptised there on 5 December 1836.  He was employed as a college servant, possibly at Trinity College as in 1851 at the age of 15 he was living with his uncle, William Kemp and working as a Butler’s assistant.  He was still with his aunt and uncle in 1861 and they were living at 4 Malcolm Street, next door to the Jacob family.

He married Mary Maria Jacob on September 11th 1862 at All Saints Church.  The couple lived at 6 Jesus Lane and had one daughter: Fanny Mary (1863-1895). In 1871 he was working as a college ‘shoeblack’ and Mary was running a lodging house.  William died at Jesus Lane of  ‘congestion of the lungs’.

Mary Maria Kemp (née Jacob) (1838 – 28 August 1876)

Mary was the only daughter of Aaron and Mary Jacob and was baptised at All Saint’s Church on 30 September 1838.  She died less than a year after her husband at 3 Malcolm Street.

William and Mary’s daughter Fanny was left an orphan aged 13, and had gone into service by the age of 18.  She married Charles Beaumont (1864-) and had six children.  She died aged 32 years old, leaving Charles to raise the children.

Sources:

Ancestry

Newspaper archives

Parish burial records

by Claire Martinsen and Mary Naylor

[If you have any further information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]

Aaron Jacobs; Mary Jacobs; Mary Maria Kemp; William Kemp