CFHS code : PL344
Parish : St Paul
Inscription : IAR JUDITH CHANDLER d Sept 9 1875 aged [75] DENNIS CHANDLER 1878 aged 77
Monument : Coped stone
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Monument
This copped stone located in the parish area of St Paul’s west of the central path and roughly 7 monuments north of the sough path. The surface of the stone has been damaged and much of the carved inscription lost. We have used the grave register to establish that Frances & Frances Chandler were also buried here.
Inscription
In Affectionate Remembrance of JUDITH CHANDLER departed this life Sept 9 1875 aged [75]
DENNIS CHANDLER 1878 aged 78 years
………… 50 years
Relationships Judith and Denis were husband and wife. Frances was probably a second cousin of Dennis, and mother of Frances.
Judith Chandler (née Martin) (c.1800 – 9 September 1875)
Judith was born in Bacton in Suffolk – a village located about 8 miles north of Stowmarket. She was the daughter of John and Judith Martin and was baptised in Bacton on 29 April 1800. She married Dennis Chandler at the same church on 13 June 1827. Dennis was a baker and confectioner, and by at least 1835 the couple were living in Cambridge, where he had a shop on Burleigh Street. By 1841 he was trading from Park Street, before moving to 66 Trumpington Street (1851/61). The couple are believed to have had a daughter called Martha, who was six years old on the 1841 census, but no record of a birth or death can be found and she died not appear on any other census record.
By at least 1868 Dennis Chandler had retired and the couple were living at 24 Hills Road. Martha died there in 1875 aged 75 years old.
Dennis Chandler (c.1801 – 8 October 1878)
Dennis was born in Pakenham in Suffolk – a village lying just east of Bury St. Edmunds. He was the son of John and Martha, and was baptised in Pakenham on 3 March 1901. He married aged 27 years old, and worked as a baker/confectioner.
He was an early member of the Cambridge Benefit Building Society. The society was formed with only 500 members each paying 50s per share. At the second annual general meeting of the Society in 1849 Dennis proposed the directors for the coming year. In 1856 he was nominated as a director of the then named Cambridge and Cambridgeshire Building Societies.
For many years he was also secretary of the Poor Relief Soup Fund, which had a kitchen on Corn Exchange Street. The kitchen for example was open for 38 days between 14 November 1873 and 27 March 1874 and distributed 30,000 pints of soup in that time. In 1866 they reported a much increased demand due to the cost of meat, and in that winter opened for 43 days. In 1871 they had to appeal for some ‘fresh subscribers’ to assist ‘a charity of which the poor appear still very ready to avail themselves’. The major contributors to the fund in 1871 were Mortlock’s Bank and Foster’s Bank who accounted for 25% of annual donations between them.
Dennis died at home on Hills Road aged 77 years old. The executors of his estate were his brother Arthur Chandler and niece Mary Chandler.
Frances Chandler (née Chandler) (1805 – May 1880)
Frances was born in Pakenham, and is thought to have been a cousin of Dennis Chandler. She married widower Dennis Chandler (1787-) in Wyverstone, near Stowmarket on 18 October 8132 and they had at least three children: Martha (1834-), Mary C (1836-) and Frances (1838-1889). Dennis was a farmer, and the couple were probably cousins. The Chandler family was a large one, and the family names passed down the ages were Dennis and Frances, which makes identifying them difficult. Dennis farmed in Lidgate, a small village between Bury St. Edmunds and Newmarket, and all three girls were born there. By 1851 Frances was a widow and was running a school on the High Street in Ixworth, assisted by her daughter Mary, and her other two daughters were living with her there. In 1861, Frances was still running the school, assisted by daughter Mary, but by 1871 had moved to Cambridge to live with her youngest daughter Frances (jnr) who was also a school teacher. When Frances (jnr) moved to teach at the Girls’ School in Haddenham, Frances moved too and died there aged 75 years old. She was buried at Mill Road Cemetery on 1 June 1880.
Frances Chandler (1838 – February 1889)
Frances was the youngest daughter of Dennis and Frances, and aged 23 was working as a governess in Great Baddow, Essex (1861). She later taught in Cambridge and Haddenham and in 1881 was living at the Girls’ Schol House in Haddenham. Frances died at Hills Road Feb aged 50
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen with help from Mary Naylor
[If you have any further information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]