CFHS code : MG174
Parish : St Mary the Great
Inscription : Sacred to the Memory of AARON PAYNE d 25 Mar 1851 aged 52 also ——— PAYNE wife of the above ——— 187[4]
Monument : Headstone
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.201961, 0.13840612 – click here for location
Monument
The weathered headstone, in the parish area of St Mary the Great, leans against the east wall.
Inscription
Aaron Payne (c.1798 – 25 March 1851)
Aaron was born in Doddington in Cambridgeshire – a small village between Chatteris and March. He was the son of William and Ann Payne, and was baptised in Doddington on 24 September 1799. He married Athaliah Johnson on 4 February 1821 in Cambridge. The couple had at least five children: Eliza (1821-), William (1824-1883), George (1827-1828), Sarah (1830-1905) and Elizabeth (1837-).
Aaron was a fruiterer/greengrocer. He had a store on Hobson Street from at least 1835 – c.1841, and then at 33 Market Hill. He appears to have played a prominent role in town life, and his name appears many times in newspapers of the time. A letter to the editor of the Cambridge Independent Press in 1839 referred to him as ‘the respectable green grocer’. It was in relation to a little girl finding a £10 cheque in the street. The cheque belonged to Aaron and he gave the girl a half sovereign by way of reward. He was also involved in the Cambridge Horticulture Society, and tickets for the 1847 show were to be bought from Aaron’s shop in Market Hill. Aaron was also elected a member of the Cambridge Association for Prosecution of Felons in 1849. The society was described as ‘highly important and prosperous’ and held its annual dinner at the University Arms that year.
In July 1835 he wrote a testimony for the Haylock’s ‘celebrated remedy for bilious liver and stomach complaint, indigestion, sick head-ache ..etc’, which was printed in the Cambridge Chronicle and Journal. R. Haylock was a chemist, with a store on Sussex Street. Aaron wrote ‘Sir, I have much pleasure in informing you of the great relief your pills have afforded me; for several years I have been excessively bilious and violently so at this season of the year….it affords me great delight to be able to inform you and society at large of the wonderful cure I have experienced from them’.
Aaron Payne died aged 52 years old at Market Hill.
Athaliah Payne (née Johnson) (c.1801 – 4 December 1874)
Athaliah was born in Barrington, just outside Cambridge. She married Aaron Payne when she was c.20 years old. After he died she briefly took over the running of the greengrocery store at Market Hill (1851) but the running of it then passed to Aaron’s nephew. Athaliah moved to live at 5 Manor Street with her son William and daughter Sarah. They appear to be the only two of her children who lived to adulthood. Her occupation on the census records of 1861/1871 was documented as owner of property. She died aged 73 years old at Manor Street and was buried at Mill Road Cemetery on 9 December 1874.
William Payne (c.1828 – 30 October 1883)
William was the son of Aaron and Athaliah Payne. He never married, and lived with his mother and sister at 5 Manor Street and then with his sister Sarah alone at the house (1881). He died aged 54 years old at home.
Sarah Payne continued to live at 5 Manor Street until her death on 25 December 1905 aged 75 years old. She appears to have died without leaving a will and newspaper adverts were taken out in March 1907 on behalf of Gin, Goodman and Ginn Solicitors tracing next of kin. A reply printed in the Luton Reporter on 29 March in response to an enquiry read ‘The Aaron Payne referred to died on March 25th, 1851 and therefore could not have been your father. The estate is in the hands of the Chancery Division of the High Court, so that you would need to employ a solicitor to obtain any further particulars and claims must be lodged not later than April 3rd’.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
[If you have any further information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]