CFHS code : AG89
Parish: St Andrew the Great
Monument : Headstone
Inscription : In Loving Memory Of ……..
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Monument
This badly eroded headstone was identified by the use of the grave register that was transcribed by CFHS in 2017. We have not yet found the monument. But know it is under a large bush 7 rows west along the east west path from the centre circle and 8 monuments to the south. Row 15 plot 10
Inscription
In Loving Memory Of ……..
Sarah Martha Bailey (née Carpenter) (c.1815 – 22 January 1892)
Sarah was born in Cambridge and married widower John Bailey (1810-1861) on 24 September 1839 at St. Andrew’s Church. John was a master gardener/florist who had at least one son (John Henry Bailey) from his first marriage to Elizabeth (née Dale). John and Sarah lived at 44 Mill Road and had at least three sons: William (1842-), James (1847-1927) and Harry (1854-).
John committed suicide in February 1861, which was reported widely in the local press. The Cambridge Independent Press reported it under ‘shocking case of suicide’. John had advanced his friend Alfred Mose money in order to fight a court case. Both men were confident that the case would be found in favour of Mose, and they had a written agreement to split the profits ‘whether in money or estates, immediately after the settlement thereof’. The situation meant that John Bailey had to spend a great deal of money on solicitors and also train fares to London – the inquest found he had probably spent between £200 and £300. At the start of February 1861 he found out he was liable for the entire costs of the case, and furthermore that the case was likely to be dismissed. The newspaper wrote ‘the poor man then saw his error, and from his melancholy and dejected manner it was evident to his friends that his mind was greatly burdened. This grew upon him and unable long to endure his position, seeing that ruin was before him, he resorted to the comittal of an act which is as greatly to be deported as it is shocking to chronicle’. On Sunday 3 February, he shot himself in his bedroom and died instantly.
Sarah lived with her three sons at 44 Mill Road (1861) and 42 Adam and Eve Street (1871). Her youngest son Harry was a solicitor, and in 1881 the pair were living at 13 Eden Street, before moving to 51 Regent Street. Sarah died at Regent Street aged 76.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
[If you have any further information about this person, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]