CFHS code : BE97b
Parish : St Bene’t
Inscription : In Loving Remembrance of LOUISA the beloved wife of JOHN DOWLING d May 23 1896 aged 68 also of JOHN DOWLING husband of the above d Sept 16 1908 aged 89
Monument : Headstone
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.202511, 0.13635439 – click here for location
Monument
This headstone is hidden under trees & bushes 5 rows east of the west path in the parish of St Bene’t. The carved inscription, which faces east, is legible though worn and the decorative feature of trailing ivy round the top of the headstone, though warn, is in reasonable condition. It’s position, under bushes towards the south of the parish, makes it hard to access.
Inscription
In Loving Remembrance of LOUISA the beloved wife of JOHN DOWLING who departed this life May 23 1896 aged 68 years
He giveth his beloved sleep
A light is from our household gone
A voice we loved is stilled
A place is vacant in our home
Which never will be filled
Also of JOHN DOWLING husband of the above d Sept 16 1908 aged 89
Louisa Dowling née Brett (c.1827 – 23 May 1896)
Louisa was born in Cambridge to Francis and Sarah Brett. She grew up in Old Cross Keys Yard Magdelen St. Francis was a shoemaker. She married John Downing on January 8th 1846, at St Giles’s church, when she was 19 years old.. She and John had at least seven children: Louisa (b 1847), Martha (b 1850), Lydia Anna (1854-1943), Sarah (b 1857), Fanny (b 1860), Jane (b 1862) and Edmund John (1864-1946).
John worked as a joiner/carpenter and the family lived at 40 Hyde Park Corner, (at the junction of Hills Road and Regent Street). Louisa also worked as a dressmaker in later life. She died in 1896 aged 68 years old.
John Dowling (c.1819- 16 September 1908)
John was the son of Matthew and Sally Dowling. He was baptised at St Mary the Great on 27th June 1819. He married Louisa and had seven children. In April 1856 he was imprisoned for three months for receiving stolen goods. He continued to live at Hyde Park Corner after her death in 1896. He died aged 89 years old in 1908.
related monument – Louisa’s nephew Will Addison is buried in the parish of St Michael.
Source:
Ancestry
CFHS transcripts of parish records
by Claire Martinsen