CFHS code : AS3
Parish : All Saints
Inscription : In Loving Memory of ELIZA MARTHA CURTIS d Sep 27th 190[6] aged 51 also ALFRED CURTIS d Dec 26th 1915 aged 80
Monument : Headstone/Kerb stones
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.203404, 0.13771435 – click here for location
Monument
This headstone is one of a pair that stand together 1 row west of the central path and 2 and 3 monuments north of the north path, in the parish of All Saints. Both stones are carved with a rose in a circle at the top. The carved inscriptions have eroded and are now quite hard to read.
Inscription
In Loving Memory of ELIZA MARTHA CURTIS who died September 27th 1906 aged 51 years
Peace Perfect Peace
Also ALFRED CURTIS who died Dec 26th 1915 aged 80 years
Relationship: Father and daughter-in-law
Eliza Martha Curtis (née Masters) (c.1855 – 27 September 1906)
Eliza was born in Paddington and was the daughter of Christopher Osborn Masters and his wife Rosina (née Stewart). Her father was a house decorator and Eliza married perfumer’s assistant William Ezekial Stevens on 25 December 1871 in Marylebone. She was widowed and then married Alfred Curtis (1857-1897) on 12 July 1880 in Marylebone.
The couple had at least four children: Florence Eliza (1881-1955), Alfred (1882-1944), Christopher Henry (1885-) and Edith Mary (1888-1973). They lived at Bovey Street (1881) then 60 Station Road (1891) and Alfred worked as a tram driver/stage driver. The couple then moved to Cambridge where Alfred died in 1897. In 1901 Eliza was running the Rose and Tulip ‘beer house’ at 1 & 2 St. Andrew’s Street and died there in 1906.
Alfred Curtis (1835 – 26 December 1915)
Alfred was born in Spitalfields and was baptised on 13 September 1835 at St. Botolph without Bishopsgate Church. He was the son of publican Lawrence and Elizabeth and by the age of 16 was working as a cooper.
He married Eliza Thurgood (1837-1896) on 5 April 1856 at St Barbabas’ Church, Bethnal Green. The couple had ten children: Alfred (1857-1897), Frederick Henry (1861-1956), Frank Percy (1863-1959), Mary Ann (1866-), Sidney (1867-1933), Lawrence Stephen (1869-1916), William Augustus (1871-1904), Alice Maud (1872-1957), Grace (1875-) and Elizabeth J (1879-).
The family lived at Archibald Street in Bromley (1871) and then at Fen Stanton where Alfred worked as a cooper in a brewery (1881). By 1891 they had moved to run the Duke of Gloucester pub at 35 Prospect Row and Alfred also worked as a cooper in conjunction with being a landlord. In April 1891 Alfred was declared bankrupt and in court he stated that ‘he had kept no books…he attributed his insolvency principally to loss of employment’.
He was widowed in 1896 and in 1901/1911 was living at 16 John Street with daughter Grace. He died at home aged 80 years old.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
[If you have any further information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]