CFHS code : AL516
Parish : St Andrew the Less
Inscription : side 1 In Loving Memory of ETHEL MIRIAM the dearly loved child of THOMAS & ELIZABETH BIDWELL b June 19 1879 d Oct 19 1883 also of FLORENCE their eldest daughter b Feb 21 1876 d Oct 21 1894 also THOMAS RICHARD THURLOW BIDWELL b Feb 6 1848 d April 6 1900 also ANN ELIZABETH BIDWELL d Oct 20th 1907 aged 59 side 2 In Loving Memory of THOMAS JOHN BIDWELL d March 23rd 1901 in the 27th year of his age interred at Beaueort West Westleyan cemetery South Africa also GRACE S BIDWELL d July 6 1903 aged 20 also JESSIE DAISY BIDWELL d January 31 1908 aged 26 interred at Brockley cemetery
Monument : Headstone
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Monument
Inscription
side 1
In Loving Memory of ETHEL MIRIAM the dearly loved child of THOMAS & ELIZABETH BIDWELL b June 19 1879 d Oct 19 1883
Also of FLORENCE their eldest daughter b Feb 21 1876 d Oct 21 1894
Also THOMAS RICHARD THURLOW BIDWELL b Feb 6 1848 d April 6 1900
Also ANN ELIZABETH BIDWELL d Oct 20th 1907 aged 59
side 2
In Loving Memory of THOMAS JOHN BIDWELL d March 23rd 1901 in the 27th year of his age interred at Beaueort West Westleyan cemetery South Africa
Also GRACE S BIDWELL d July 6 1903 aged 20
Also JESSIE DAISY BIDWELL d January 31 1908 aged 26 interred at Brockley cemetery
Thomas Richard Thurlow Bidwell (6 February 1848 – 6 April 1900)
Thomas was born in Cambridge, and was the son of Thomas and Sarah (née Thurlow) Bidwell. Thomas Bidwell (Snr) was a butcher, and they lived at 109 East Road. Sarah Bidwell died in 1856 and Thomas then married for a second time to Elizabeth, By the time Thomas (Jnr) was 13 years old in 1861 his father was the landlord of the Black Swan pub on East Road, and also a butcher. In 1871 he was living at home and working as a butcher. He married Ann Sargeant on 1st July 1873.
They had at least eight children: Thomas John (1874-1901), Florence (1876-1894), Ann Elizabeth (1876-1948), Ethel Miriam (1879-18830, Jessie Daisy (1881-1908), Grace Sophia (1882-1908), Edith Miriam (1884-) and Victoria Louisa (1887-1955). The family lived at 50-52 Kingston Street, and Thomas continued to work as a butcher. He died at Kingston Street aged 52 years old.
Ann Elizabeth Bidwell (née Sargeant) (c.1848 – 29 October 1907)
Ann was the daughter of single mother Elizabeth Sargeant. In 1851 she was at 48 Newmarket Road, where her mother was working as a servant. She married Thomas Bidwell when she was around 25 years old. After being widowed she continued to run the butchery business, and was living at 50-52 Kingston Street in 1901 with daughters Jessie, Grace, Edith, Victoria and a servant called Annie.
In May 1905 she took her former employee George Biggs to court for embezzlement. Annie had employed George for seven years, and his duties were said to be to call for orders, take money from customers and give receipts. He was said to be paid 18s per week as well as enough meat to last a week. He had been taking money from customers and not entering them in the ledger. Daughter Jessie Daisy was the shop’s book keeper and she was also a witness in the trial. The trial was centred around misappropriated payments from a customer called Stephen Henry Judge who ran the Chequers Inn, but in total around £30 was missing from the ledger. ‘Mrs Bidwell said she did not wish to press the case unduly and at her request other charges which had been brought were not proceeded with’. George Biggs pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two months imprisonment – ‘his wife who occupied a seat at the back of the Court was carried out in hysterics after the pronouncement of the sentence’.
Ann died at Kingston Street in 1907 aged 59 years old.
Ethel Miriam Bidwell (19 June 1879 – 19 October 1883)
Ethel was the fourth of Thomas and Ann’s eight children. She died aged 4 years old.
Florence Bidwell (21 February 1876 – 21 October 1894)
Florence was the eldest daughter of Thomas and Ann. She died aged 18 years old.
Thomas John Bidwell (1874 – 23 March 1901)
Thomas was the eldest child and only son of Thomas and Ann Bidwell. He was baptised on 24th May 1874 at the Primative Methodist Chapel in Cambridge. He grew up in Kingston Street and in 1891 was working as a butcher’s assistant to his father. No records can be found of his enlistment into the army, but it is presumed that he died in the 2nd Boer War in South Africa.
Grace Sophia Bidwell (1882 – 6 July 1903)
Grace was the sixth child of Thomas and Ann. In the 1891 census she was not at her home in Kingston Street, but was a patient in the Mill Road Hospital. In August 1899 the Cambridge Independent Press published that she has passed an examination in ‘Geometric drawing’ , and got a 1st class in Freehand drawing at the Cambridge Technical Institute. By 1901 she was living at Kingston Street with her widowed mother and was working as a pupil teacher at St Matthew’s School. She was presented with an award as a second year pupil teacher by the Bishop of Ely in February 1901. She died aged 20 years old at Kingston Street.
Jessie Daisy Bidwell (1881 – 31 January 1908)
Jessie was the fifth child of Thomas and Ann. She was a butcher’s clerk in 1901 and living at 50-52 Kingston Street. She died in Greenwich in January 1908 and was buried in Lewisham on 5th February 1908.
Thomas’s half brother Charles Bidwell and sister Hannah Thurlow Shoote are also buried at Mill Road Cemetery
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
[If you have any further information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]