CFHS code : AL40
Parish : St Andrew the Less
Inscription : In Loving Memory of JOHN HARPER d July 16 1898 aged 79 also WILLIAM THOMAS HARPER d Aug 12 1895 aged 49 also MARY HARPER d May 29 1924 aged 83 ELLEN ELIZA AMBROSE d March 23 1934 aged 59
Monument : Kerb stones
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.204074, 0.13790755 – click here for location
Monument
Located midway between the path that runs to the Norfolk Street gate and the east wall in the far north of the cemetery. There is a cross lying in the centre which may not belong to this monument.
Inscription
In Loving Memory of JOHN HARPER died July 16 1898 aged 76
WILLIAM THOMAS HARPER died Aug 12 1895 aged 49
MARY HARPER died May 29 1924 aged 83
ELLEN ELIZA AMBROSE died March 23 1934 aged 59 years
Relationships: Father, son, daughter-in-law, grand-daughter
John Harper (4 December 1821 – 16 July 1898)
John was born in Long Crendon in Buckinghamshire, and was baptised there on 9 February 1823. He was the son of agricultural labourer Thomas Harper and his wife Maria. John married Hannah Foster (1812-1894), and moved to Greenford, London where he worked as a police constable from May 1844 -July 1864. John and Maria had at least two children: William Thomas (1848-1895) and Eliza (1852-). He was pensioned out of the police force in July 1864 on a pension of £29 per annum due to ‘infirmity of the body arising from being injured in execution of his duty’.
John returned to live in Long Crendon, a village 3 miles north west of Thame. In 1871 he was running a pub in the village, with daughter Eliza working as a barmaid. On subsequent census returns (1881/1891) he was described as a police pensioner, and lived on Bicester Road with wife Hannah. When she died in 1894, he appears to have moved to Cambridge where his son William lived. He died in Cambridge aged 76 years old.
William Thomas Harper (1848 – 12 August 1895)
William was born in Greenford, and baptised there on 10 December 1848 at Holy Cross Church. He married Mary Fryer on 7 September 1872 at Woodbastwick in Norfolk. They had three children: Ellen Eliza (1874-1934), John Percival (1877-1938) and Henry William (1880-1948). The couple initially lived in Ealing and all three children were born there – in 1881 they were living at 4 Clarendon Terrace in Ealing. William was a master plumber, and was employing 5 men and 3 boys in his business. By 1891 the family had moved to Cambridge and were living at 3 Church Street. He died aged 47 years old at 137 Gwydir Street (although his grave monument records his age as 49 years).
Mary Harper (née Fryer) ( 30 January 1841 – 29 May 1924)
Mary was born in Woodbastwick, a village seven miles east of Norwich in Norfolk. She was the daughter of carpenter William Fryer and his wife Elizabeth and was baptised on 27 June 1841. Aged 20 years old she was living with her parents and siblings at the Post Office in Woodbastwick and working as a housemaid. In 1871 she was living in Hendon, and working as a housemaid for Mr Blackwell – an East Indian linen merchant. She married William Harper the following year when she was c31 years old.
After she was widowed she lived initially at 137 Gwydir Street (1901) with her son John, and then moved to 1 Mackenzie Road where she ran a lodging house (1911). She died aged 83 years old.
Ellen Eliza Ambrose (née Harper) (1874 – 23 March 1934)
Ellen was the only daughter of William and Mary Harper. Aged 17 she was working as a pupil teacher. She then lived in Clifton, Bedfordshire working as a teacher (1901) and Henlow in Bedfordshire where she was a head teacher (1911). She married Walter George Ambrose (1880-1959) at St. Matthew’s Church on 24 August 1911. Walter was a hairdresser, and Ellen had been a lodger with the Ambrose family in 1901, and with his sister Edith and her husband in 1911. The couple lived at 35 Victoria Road, and are not believed to have had any children. Ellen died aged 59 years old at the home of her brother John Harper.
Walter Ambrose married for a second time in 1935 to Adelaide Emily Davies (1898-1977). He was a hairdresser and newsagent and died at 79 Hurst Park Avenue aged 78 years old.
William and Mary’s other son Henry William Harper married Annie Elizabeth Hicks in 1907. He too worked as a plumber, but emigrated to Canada in 1913. He initially lived in Saskatchewan, but then moved to Vancouver, and died there in February 1948 aged 68 years old.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
Many thanks to the grandson of John and Nelly Harper for contacting us.
[If you have any information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]