CFHS code : AL613 (formerly recorded in error as AS46)
Parish : St Andrew the Less
Inscription : ROBERT HOULDEN d July 4 1864 aged 73
Monument : Headstone (fallen and broken)
Above information amended from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Monument
This broken headstone lies roughly 10 metres north of the north path and and a few metres from the west wall in the parish of Andrew the Less. It is right on the northern border with of the parish of All Saints so mistakenly recorded by CFHS as AS46 with a fuller inscription. We can only assume that CFHS recorded the headstone in AS while it was still standing and recorded it again some years later in AL after it had fallen. Now that it has been photographed we can only find the inscription for Robert and conclude that the stone fell face down obscuring the inscriptions for Mary and Thomas. The posts have now been combined under the correct code of AL613. The carved inscription for Robert is badly eroded.
Inscription
In Affectionate Remembrance of ROBERT HOULDEN d July 4 1864 aged 73
Also of MARY wife of the above d 30 Nov 1877 aged 85
Also THOMAS HOULDEN son of above b May 1825 d Feb 28 1892
Robert Houlden (1791 – 4 July 1864)
Robert was born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire He married Mary Hassack (1792-1877) on 3rd November 1817 in Castle Camps and they had at least six children: Louisa (1818-1897), Henry (1821-1895), Elizabeth (1822-1868), Thomas (1825-1892), Mary Ann (1827-1878) and Emma (1828-1891).
Robert was a milkman and cow keeper living with his family in an area recorded as Gravel Pits which was near Coldham’s Lane. In 1839 he was running the George the Fourth pub on East Road and by the time the 1841 census was taken Robert was running a pub on Silver Street. In 1851 he and Mary were living with their son Thomas who was now the *publican and Head of the household in Fitzroy Street. Robert may have continued to keep some land as when his widowed daughter Elizabeth married again in 1857 he was described as a farmer.
In November 1847 he was sent to Cambridge Goal for 14 days ‘by the Judge of the County Court of Lincolnshire’ for non appearance at court. His solicitors argued that as he did not reside in Lincolnshire, he was not within the jurisdiction of the Court and it was therefore illegal to imprison him, so he was released after six days after being ‘kept on the prison diet for debtors’. In July 184 he sued the Judge for £49, 9s and 4d, for the cost of obtaining the discharge and also some damages for ‘what he had suffered’. He won the case and was awarded £60 in damages.
Robert died on July 4th and his death was reported in the local paper “At Fitzroy Street, deeply regretted, Mr Robert Houlden, aged 73”.
Mary Houlden ( c1892/6 – 1877)
Mary was born in Norfolk possibly Kings Lynn. We know nothing about her early life. On the 1861 census she is listed along with her husband Robert as a retired publican so she may well have taken part in the family business.
Thomas Houlden (1825-1892)
Thomas never married. He helped his father in the pub and then became a publican and ran the Ancient Druids public House at 34 Fitzroy Street. When he died he was living at Walnut Tree Lane. In 18
The other Houlden children
Louisa – linked above
Elizabeth married brewer Robert Brooks in Cambridge in 1841, was widowed in 1846 and married clerk Thomas Machin in 1857. She died on August 1st 1868 aged 48, “after a long and Severe affliction.” * She was buried in the parish of St Andrew the Less but we have not found a monument.
Mary Ann married jeweller William Renshaw May 14 1855 in Worksop
Henry became a lawyer’s clerk and married Ann Low, March 2nd 1843 in Cambridge. Died Eden St 1895. He is buried in the parish of St Andrew the Great but no monument has been found
Emma – Linked above
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
Parish burial records transcribed by CFHS
Lots pubs of Cambridge
by Mary Naylor and Claire Martinsen
[If you have any further information about this person, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]