CFHS code : PL111
Parish : St Paul
Inscription : In Memory of HERVEY PRESTON 3 Feb 1861 aged 57 also ANN wife of above d 19 May 1894 aged 88 also CLARA MARY PRESTON daughter of HERVEY and ANN PRESTON d 7 Jun 1860 aged 20 also of ELLEN, LUCY & HERVEY their children
Monument : Chest tomb with panelled sides
Above information amended from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Monument
Located close to the south wall, in the parish area of St Paul, this tomb has sustained some damage to the lid which has collapsed inwards. Most of the inscription has been checked but it is badly eroded so parish and census records were used to correct the original transcription.
Inscription
north side panel
In Memory of HERVEY PRESTON 3 Feb 1861 aged 57
Also ANN wife of above died 19 May 1894 aged 88
west side panel
Also CLARA MARY PRESTON daughter of HERVEY and ANN PRESTON who died 7 Jun 1860 aged 28
south side panel
Hervey Preston (d 1861)
It is thought that Hervey was the tenth child of Edward and Sarah (née Mead) Preston and baptised at St Andrew the Less in 1804. He married Ann Parry at St Cuthbert’s Church, Thetford on July 8th 1829. The couple had at least four children, three of whom died as very young children.
Hervey worked as a merchant trading corn and coal and the family lived at 54 Hills Road. He died in 1861 aged 57 years. After his death some of the household furniture was auctioned off including ‘cottage pianoforte by Metzler, set of sliding frame dining tables, chettioneer and effects’.
Ann Preston (née Parry) (c.1806 – 19 May 1894)
Ann was the daughter of Thomas and Mary Preston Parry. She was born in Thetford and baptised there on December 28th 1806. After she was widowed she lived at 54 Hills Road (1861,71,81) and her occupation was given as owner of houses, or ‘lets appartments’.
By 1891 she was living at 37 Hills Road and was said to be a lodging house keeper. Her age in the 1841 census is given as 30 (probably rounded down by the enumerator), 1851 – 44, 1861- 54 1871- 64, 1881 – 70, 1891 – 84. At her death the inscription says she is 88 but the parish record says 90 (as did the notice of her death in the newspaper).
After Ann’s death 37 Hills Road was auctioned. As the sale details outline it was seen as a ‘desirable dwelling house’ and sold for £1,225. On the same night a shop/dwelling at 10 Mill Street sold for £175, and numbers 8-10 Brandon Place sold for £315.
Her sister Sarah Preston Headdey is buried in the next grave to the north.
Clara Mary Preston (1832 – 7 June 1860)
Clara was the second child of Hervey and Ann Preston. She was baptised in 1832 and grew up at Hills Road. She died aged 28, and the notice of her death in local papers stated ‘deeply lamented Clara Mary only surviving daughter of Mr Hervey Preston’.
Lucy Preston (1830 – 1835)
Ellen Preston (1833 – 1834)
Hervey Edward Preston (1835-1838)
Mill Road Cemetery was closed when the three children above died, so they would have been buried in the graveyard at the church of St Andrew the Less on Newmarket Road, Cambridge.
Sources:
CFHS parish and census transcripts
familysearch.org
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Mary Naylor and Claire Martinsen
[If you have any information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]