CFHS code : PL52
Parish : St Paul
Inscription : In Loving Memory of ELIZABETH MARY the affectionate and devoted wife of WILLIAM PAPWORTH d 29 April 1880 age 29
Monument : Headstone/Kerb stones
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Monument
Inscription
Elizabeth Mary Papworth (née Gower) (c. May 1850 – 29 April 1880)
Elizabeth was born in Ipswich, the eldest daughter of George Stephen Stock Gower (1814-) and Mary (née Knight) (1817-1896). Her father was a hosier/ outfitter when she was born and ran a shop on Tavern Street, Ipswich, where the family also lived. In 1861 Elizabeth was 10 years old and her father was a draper’s assistant and the family had moved to St. Nicholas Place, Ipswich. They had moved to 10 Clarendon Street, Cambridge by 1862, where George Gower worked as an accountant for the Railway. The house was newly refurbished and consisted of ‘2 kitchens, cellars, pantry, 2 sitting rooms, 3 bedrooms, garden at back with pump and good supply of water’ and the Gowers rented the house for £15 per year. Elizabeth had four siblings – two older and two younger than her. Her two youngest siblings, died in at Clarendon Street in 1863. Aged 20, she was still living at home and working as an assistant in a fancy wool shop (1871)
She married commercial traveller William Papworth (1852-) in 1876 and they had three children: William Ernest (1876-1956), Alice Mary (1878-1962) and Robert Arthur Gower (1880-1970). They started married life in William’s home village of Histon, where their first two children were born, but then moved to 14 Panton Street where youngest son Robert was born on 23 April 1880. Elizabeth died at home six days later, most likely as a result of complications at the birth and her funeral was held on 3 May.
In 1881 William was still living at 14 Panton Street, with his children, sister Esther and domestic servant Eliza Knightly. He married Annie Morgan (1858-), who was a single mother with one son (William Ernest Morgan) and they had another six children together. They had moved to Colchester by 1889, where he worked as a general furniture dealer.
Elizabeth’s two nieces: Edith and Florence Gower, daughters of her brother Frederick Gower are also buried at Mill Road Cemetery.
.
Sources:
Parish burial records transcribed by CFHS
Newspaper archives
Ancestry
by Claire Martinsen
[If you have any information about this person, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]