CFHS code : AL167
Parish : St Andrew the Less
Inscription : In Loving Memory of JAMES DEANS b Sept 29th 1829 d Sept 29th 1899 also of ELIZABETH DEANS wife of the above d Dec 2nd 1914 aged 77
Monument : Headstone/Kerb stones
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Monument
This headstone stands about 2 metres east of the central path and about 9 plots north of the north path in the parish of Andrew the Less. As no close up was taken when we cleared the area in 2018 we have left the inscription as recorded by CHFHS in 2000. This area has been left t grow wild and the monuments are no longer visible.
Inscription
In Loving Memory of JAMES DEANS b Sept 29th 1829 d Sept 29th 1899
Also of ELIZABETH DEANS wife of the above d Dec 2nd 1914 aged 77
James Deans (29 September 1829 – 29 September 1899)
James was the son of William and Mary Deans, but through most of his life the family surname was spelt Dean. It only seems to have reverted to his grandfather’s spelling of the name when he died.
William Dean was a carpenter and James grew up at 35 Prospect Row (1841) and Watson’s Garden, Gold Street (1851). Aged 21 he was also working as a carpenter. He married domestic servant Esther Lyon (1835-1876) in 1860 and the following year the couple were living at 1 Burleigh Street, where he was documented as a labourer. By 1871 James was running The Oxford pub at 9 Crispin Street, but was also an amateur cricketer. Esther Dean died at the St. John’s College cricket ground on 1 June 1876 and was buried at Mill Road Cemetery, although her grave has not yet been identified.
James worked as the custodian of the St. John’s College cricket pitch and after he was widowed, lived at the Pavilion on the grounds with niece Augusta Sophia Sell (1857-1917), who acted as his housekeeper (1881/1891). He married Elizabeth Mattingley in c.1892. James died at 81 Chesterton Road on his 70th birthday and his funeral was held on 3 October.
Elizabeth Deans (née Mattingley) (1837 – 2 December 1914)
Elizabeth was born in Stanford in the Vale, a village between Wantage and Faringdon and was baptised there on 31 August 1837. She was the daughter of John and Mary and her father worked as an agricultural labourer. She worked as a cook/housekeeper for the Dunlap family in Windsor from at least 1861 to 1881. By 1891 she had retired and was still living in Windsor, where she was described as an annuitant. She is thought to have married James Dean in Windsor the following year and was widowed 7 years later. In 1901 Elizabeth was living at 81 Chesterton Road with her niece Jane Mattingley (who was also from Stanford in the Vale), James’ niece Augusta Challis (née Sell) and Augusta’s son William Windsor Challice (1893-1944). She died at Chesterton Road and the executor of her will was Augusta’s brother Henry William Sell, who was a cricket ground custodian and ‘cricket professor’.
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]