CFHS Code CL26
Parish St Clement’s
Monument
This chest tomb commemorates the deaths of at least 4 members of the Hill family. Though only one of them, Annie is in the burial records.
It is possible that their parents Marianne (d 1900) and William Beaville (d 1903) are also buried here as they are in the burial records. They have been included here unless we find them elsewhere.
Although the top of the tomb, with a prone cross and the 4 names is in good order. The sides have eroded and if there was any inscription it is no longer visible. There is a pile of stones, that could be a plinth, at the east end of the tomb but no inscriptions have been found. The stone was only partially uncovered as it provides a valuable plant environment.
Inscription
WILLIAM HILL ALICE EDWARDS
1846 -1909 1853 – 1922
KATE STARLING ANNIE HILL
1851 – 1936 1856 – 1937
William Beaville Hill (c 1819 – 1903) and Marianne (née Bailey) (c1822 – 1900)
William was a tailor from Plymouth, Devon and Marianne was from Sidmouth, Devon. They married in Honnington, Devon in 1845. They lived in Pimlico, London where William John (1846) and Kate Elizabeth (1851) were born before coming to Cambridge by at least 1855. On April 22nd 1860 they had their 3 youngest children baptised at St Clements Church, Alice Mary Percy (1853), Ida Helena Percy (1856) and Annie Gertrude Percy (1856). At this time they were living in St John’s St. They had moved to 15 City Road by the time of the 1861 census and William was now a tailor’s foreman and all 5 children were at home.
By 1891 William, Marianne and Annie were keeping a lodging house, In 1901 Annie and her father were living in Bridge St with a housemaid.
William John Percy Hill (1846-1909)
William was the eldest child of William and Marianne. He was born in London.
He married Sarah Girdlestone Currie in Lambeth in 1870.
In 1871 William, a commercial traveller, was living with Sarah in Lambeth. In 1876 their 3 children were baptised at St Clements Church in Cambridge. They carried on the family tradition of including the name Percy as one of the first names. William Currie Percy (1870-1944), Ida M Percy (1872), Amy Sarah Percy (1875).
By 1881 William had become a tailors clerk and the family were in Newington, London, Surry.
He was 63 when he died but we have not found a death or burial record for him.
Alice Mary Percy Edwards née Hill ( 1853 – 1922)
Alice married Samuel Edwards in Camberwell 1885
Kate Elizabeth Starling née Hill (1851 – 1936)
Kate married, upholsterer, Bedford Alfred Starling in St Clements Church Cambridge on June 26th 1877. Her address was given as Vicarage Farm Madingley and her father was named as William Beardle Hill – which is probably a transcription error as his middle name is Beaville in other records. At some point Kate and Bedford moved to Kendal. She was widowed in 1926.
March 2024
Annie Gertrude Percy Hill (20th November 1856 – 17th Aug 1937)
Annie lived with her parents at 28 Bridge Street presumably helped with the lodging house. She inherited her parents estate. She was still there in 1913 and still running a lodging house. And died there on August 17th 1937 aged 80.
This post is being researched by Mary Naylor
Sources
CHFHS transcripts of Parish records
Family search
British Newspaper Archives
Find My Past