CFHS code : AL85
Parish : St Andrew the Less
Inscription : In Loving Memory of FRANCES ELLEN the beloved and eldest daughter of ANTHONY and SABINA SMITH d December 19th 1885 aged 16 also of ANTHONY SMITH who departed this life August 17th 1890 aged 44 also SABINA the beloved wife of the above d April 24 1909 aged 61
Monument : Headstone (fallen)
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.203902, 0.13801633 –click here for location
Monument
This headstone is hidden within bushes and has not been photographed as we could only see a small section of stone. The CFHS survey plotted it 5 rows north west of the Gwydir St gate and about half way between the wall and the central path.
Inscription
In Loving Memory of FRANCES ELLEN the beloved and eldest daughter of ANTHONY and SABINA SMITH d December 19th 1885 aged 16
Also of ANTHONY SMITH who departed this life August 17th 1890 aged 44
Also SABINA the beloved wife of the above d April 24 1909 aged 61
Frances Ellen Smith (1869 – 19 December 1885)
Frances died at the pub her parents ran on East Road aged 16 years old. Her funeral was held on Christmas Eve 1885.
Anthony Smith (1845 – 17 August 1890)
Anthony was the illigitmate son of Frances (1819-1866) and grew up at 29 New Street, Cambridge, with his mother and step father William Smith. His step father was a labourer and aged 15 Anthony was working as the same. He married Sabina Smith on 21 February 1867 at Christ Church, Cambridge and they had at least four children: Frances Ellen, Anthony (1871-1912), Lily Sabina (1879-1909) and Ada (1881-). The couple ran The Compasses pub at 140 East Road, and then the George IVth pub, 71 East Road (at least 1883 onwards).
In November 1871 Anthony Smith was charged with having his pub open before half past twelve on Sunday. Sabina went to court in defence and P.C. Caunt said at half past ten the previous Sunday he had ‘met some drunken people coming from the direction of the defendant’s house. On arriving at the house, he saw three men drunk inside and one outside’. Anthony Smith was fined 20s and expenses. In November 1886 Charles Leclerque lodged at the George IVth for two nights and when he left Sabina Smith noted that an overcoat, waistcoat, and jacket were missing. Charles was apprehended in Newmarket and charged with the theft. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with hard labour.
Anthony Smith died at the George IVth aged 44 years old and was buried at Mill Road Cemetery on 21 August.
Sabina Cann (née Smith, formerly Smith) (1847 – 24 April 1909)
Sabina was born in Wortham, near Eye on the Norfolk/Suffolk border and was baptised there on 26 September 1847. She was the daughter of Samuel and Eleanor (Ellen) (née Crisp) and grew up in Wortham, where her father was a machine maker/wire worker. By 1861 the family had moved to Sun Street, Cambridge where Samuel Smith ran a pub and also worked as a wireworker. Sabina married Anthony Smith when she was 19 years old and after his death married bricklayer Alfred Cann (1862-1897) in 1891. Sabina and Alfred continued to run the George IVth pub together and in July 1891 he was charged with assaulting Laura Holmes. In turn the Canns accused Laura of using obscene language when speaking to Sabina. Laura was found guilty and the Chairman of the Bench said ‘it was most disgusting that a woman should use such filthy language and he was sorry to say that such language was used on the streets of the town. She was fined 5s and 9s costs. Alfred Cann had later ‘knocked her down’ in the street and ‘when she got up, he again struck her on the head’. Various witnesses were called, some saying they had seen no blows struck and others saying Laura Holmes had fallen by stepping on her dress. Nevertheless Albert Cann was found guilty and fined 20s and costs, or one month’s imprisonment if not paid.
Alfred died at the George IVth in July 1897 aged 35 years old. He was buried in the St. Andrew the Less area of Mill Road Cemetery, but it is not known precisely which grave he was buried in. Sabina then ran the pub as landlady and similar court appearances and dramas ensued. In July 1894 she sued K. Kirk for £1, 15s and 9d for ‘food and other necessaries of life supplied to the defendant’. Mr Kirk pleased ‘infancy’ (i.e. being a minor) but the judge told him he was nevertheless bound to pay for necessaries and was made to repay Sabina at the rate of 1s, 6d per month. On the same day she sued James Curry of New Street for £1s, 8s and 6d for a ‘suit of clothes’ she had supplied him. He too pleaded infancy but was made to pay 2s per month until the debt was paid. In July 1899 22 year old sailor William Bond stole a horse and trap from the George IVth, but as he was a deserter from H.M.S Northumberland the case was withdrawn from court and was heard instead by the Navy. William was the son of Sergeant William Bond and the case caused some scandal locally. William Bond (junior) said that it ‘was through drink that he got into trouble. He has also promised that if he has the chance of going back to the navy he will do so, and worthily serve his time there’. By 1899 Sabina’s lodging business appears to have been known as Cann’s Lodging House.
In 1904 another of her lodgers – painter James Allen was charged with stealing chickens to the value of 2s from Sabina. She kept sixteen hens and one evening noticed some feathers in the back yard, and then found the severed head of a chicken which she recognised as hers. In the kitchen she found the rest of the chicken boiling in a pan, which James Allen said he had bought at the market for half a crown. She called the police and James was charged with the theft, to which he pleaded guilty. The court heard he was an army pensioner and Saturday had been pension day, so he and some friends had celebrated by drinking for three days solid. The court laughed as James admitted ‘this daring, wilful act. He did feloniously steal, take and carry away the fowl and put it in a pot’. He was fined 5s or five days in prison and was told by the Bench to ‘pay for your fowl in future before you boil it’.
Sabina was charged in February 1906 with running a common lodging house without being registered under the Public Health Act. She pleaded not guilty, and the Town Clerk told the court that he believed that it was one of the houses that ought to be registered and that the definition of a common lodging house needed clarifying. Sabina was said to run a ‘lodging house used for the purposes of the poorer classes’ and that there was one large bedroom which led out of the taproom, containing ten single beds at the pub. She let the beds at 4d per night or 2s. per week. In addition to the George IVth pub, Sabina also ran the Victoria Lodging House at Staffordshire Street (almost directly opposite) which was registered as a common lodging house and could accommodate 33 people per night. Sabina’s solicitor Mr Lyon argued that the George IVth was not a common lodging house, as people who wanted accommodation were directed to the Victoria and that it was ‘not very often full….He pointed out that it had been shown that the lodgers came for longer periods than was the case in any hotel in Cambridge’. The Magistrates took half an hour to convict Sabina ‘but taking into consideration that Mrs. Cann bore such an excellent character, and managed the house so well, they fined her 5s, making no order as to costs’.
Sabina died at the Victoria Lodging House aged 61 years old and her funeral was held on 29 April. Her considerable property portfolio was auctioned after her death and included the ‘Victoria Lodging House, and occupying a commanding site at the corner of Staffordshire Street and New Streets’, 2 residential houses on Staffordshire Street, 18 houses on Albert Street, a house and yard at 25 Staffordshire Street, a house with a shop and yards at 7-9 Staffordshire Street and a plot of building land in Suez Road. Her estate was valued at £4627, 5s and 4d (c.£600,000 at 2020 values).
Sabina and Anthony’s daughter Lily Sabina Beamiss was also buried in the St. Andrew the Less area of Mill Road Cemetery in January 1909, but her grave has not yet been found.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
Parish burial records transcribed by CFHS
by Claire Martinsen
[If you have any information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]