There are several members of the Swann/Bradshaw family, buried across many parishes within Mill Road Cemetery. None of the graves has been found, and now unlikely to be discovered.
Parishes: St Andrew the Less, St. Paul, St. Mary the Great
James Swann (1852 – November 1883)
James was the eldest son of James and Priscilla and was baptised at St. Benet’s Church on 9 May 1852. His father was a carter/coprolite digger, who also ran the Bird in the Hand pub at 234/235 Newmarket Road. In 1871 he was employing 80 men and boys in his coprolite business.
James (jnr) worked in the family business and married Clara Tarrant on 7 December 1874 at St. Andrew the Less Church. They had four children: Robert James (1876-1953), Elizabeth (1878-), Harry (1880-1900) and Alice (1881-). They lived at 224 Newmarket Road, and James was documented as being a carter in the census of 1881. He died at home and was buried in the St. Andrew the Less area of the Cemetery on 13 November 1883.
Clara Bradshaw (née Tarrant) (1857 – 19 October 1921)
Clara was the daughter of George (1821-1858) and Elizabeth (Betsy) (1821-) Tarrant and grew up at 200 Newmarket Road, where her widowed mother worked as a washerwoman. Elizabeth subsequently married butcher Matthew Juler, and they moved to Fitzroy Street. She married James Swann when she was 17 yeasr old.
After his death she maried William Bradshaw (1865-1940) on Valentine’s Day 1885 at St. Matthew’s Church and they had a further six children together: Emily (1890-1953), William (1892-1957), Nellie Louisa (1894-1985), Arthur (1898-1901) and two more children who died as infants. William worked on the railway as a carman (repairs to ensure operational readiness) and they lived at 28 Wellington Street (1891), 160 Mill Road (1901), 180 Mill Road (at least 1911-1921). Clara died at Addenbrookes Hospital aged 64 years and was buried in the St. Mary the Great area of the Cemetery on 22 October 1921.
William Bradshaw (6 January 1865 – 24 February 1940)
William was born in Soham, the son of John (1838-1921) and Lucy (née Martin) (1840-1914). John worked as a railway carman, and after a short spell as an agricultural labourer (1881) William worked as the same. He married widow Clara Swann when he was 20 years old and after her death lived at 184 Gwydir Street (1939) with his sister Florence and brother in law Dennis. His funeral was held on 28 February at Mill Road Cemetery Chapel and he was buried in the same grave as Clara.
Harry Swann (1880 – February 1900)
Harry was the son of James and Clara and was baptised on 7 March 1880 at St. Andrew the Less. He died aged 20 years old at Mill Road and was buried in the St. Paul’s area of the Cemetery on 24 February 1900.
Arthur Bradshaw (27 November 1898 – 4 November 1901)
Arthur was the son of William and Clara and was baptised on 9 July 1899 at St. Barnabas Church. He died just before his third birthday and was buried in the same grave as his half-brother Harry on 7 November 1901.
Clara’s father George and brother Arthur are also buried in the Cemetery
George Tarrant (1821 – 26 October 1858)
George was the son of James and Ann Tarrant and married Elizabeth (known as Betsy) Everett on 16 June 1840 at St. Andrew the Less Church. They had at least eight children: Ann (1841-), Eliza (1842-1875), Isabella (1844-), Walter (1848-1935), Arthur (1849-1969), Alfred (1853-1932), Clara and Charles (1859-). He worked as a hawker (seller) of millinery and haberdashery and the family lived at 7 Brittania Place (1851) and then Newmarket Road. He died at home and was buried in the St. Andrew the Less area of the Cemetery on 30 October.
Betsy Tarrant subsequently married butcher Matthew Juler (1823-1871) in 1862.
Arthur Tarrant (September 1849 – 15 August 1869)
Arthur worked as a labourer and committed suicide aged 19 years old. The inquest heard he ‘was considered a steady man but had lately suffered much with his head, which was so bad as to render him unfit for his work. On Saturday and for several days previous he was very low-spirited’. At the time he was living with his sister Isabella and brother-in-law John Freeman and John told the inquest that Arthur had been an outpatient of Addenbrookes for the past month.
John described Arthur as ‘a steady, industrious and hard working young man, and used to take very little drink…..he has been very depressed of late, and would sit for an hour without speaking. Sometimes he would burst out crying and say he should never been able to do the work he had done’. His brother Alfred told the inquest ‘my father used to suffer with his head a great deal and was subject to fits. He died ten years ago, but I don’t know what of. I had an uncle who was a lunatic, but I did not know him’. Betsy testified ‘his father suffered a great deal with his head; in fact he was out of his mind sometimes on account of it. Two of the brothers of the deceased’s father died out of their mind, in asylums’. The Coroner decided that there was evidence of inherited insanity and returned a verdic of ‘temporary insanity’. Arthur was buried in the St. Andrew the Less area of the Cemetery three days after his death.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
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