This grave/graves has not yet been identified in the various surveys of the Cemetery and is now thought to be lost.
Parishe: Holy Trinity
Relationship: Husband and wife
Reuben Jaggard (1845 – 7 August 1914)
Reuben was born in Exning, and baptised there on 8 June 1845. He was the son of James (1798-1873) and Dinah (née Neel) (1799-1870). His father was an agricultural labourer and aged 16 Reuben was living in the family home in Exning and working as the same. In January 1861 Reuben together with two others was charged with snowballing Thomas Baldry at Exning – their were orderd to pay 5s each by the court.
He married Emma Jaggard on 30 May 1868 in Brinkley and the couple had seven children: Reuben (1869-1958), Emma (1871-1944), Mary Ann (1873-), William (1877-1963), Ernest James (1880-1967), Ellen Maria (1883-1946) and Walter Herbert (1889-1956). They started married life in Exning, but moved to Cavendish Road, Cambridge c.1873 when Reuben started work as a signalman for Great Eastern Railway.
Reuben kept an allotment, which belonged to the GER and in May 1897 William Unwin and Rachel Naylor were charged with stealing 5 cabbages (worth 5d) from his plot, as well as 13 cabbages from a man named Enoch Brazier (worth 1s,1d). Unwin claimed at court that he had bought the cabbages from a strange man at the Robin Hood pub, Cherry Hinton. Both were found guilty – Unwin was fined 10s without costs and Naylor was discharged, as the bench believed she had been led astray by Unwin.
In August 1909 Reuben was a witness at the inquest into the death of John Beale. Both men were working at their allotments, and Reuben had borrowed a rake from John. When he returned the rake half an hour later he found the elder man dead on the ground. By 1911 Reuben had retired and was living at 9 Cavendish Road with Emma and youngest son Walter.
Reuben died in August 1914 aged 69 years old, and was found dead on his allotment – in similar circumstances to that of John Beale. His son in law Arthur Sheldrick had followed Reuben to the allotment and found him picking beans, and complaining of feeling unwell ‘around the heart’. As they were leaving the allotment, Reuben fell down and died a short time later. The inquest heard that he had had a stroke a few years before and ‘was then advised to take care of himself’. Dr. Naish told the inquest that Reuben had ‘fairly good, robust health’ but found a ‘fatty degeneration of the heart, which combined with valvular trouble was the cause of death’. A verdict of death by natural causes was returned.
His funeral was held on 11 August at Mill Road Cemetery chapel and newspapers reported that he was ‘well known in Cambridge and enjoyed the confidence of a wide circle of friends…he was a prominent Liberal and a member of the Gladstone Liberal Club since it started. He also took a prominent part in the work of the Mill Road Mission. In many other ways Mr. Jaggard was brought into semi-public affairs and his cheery good nature won for him the esteem of all with whom he came in contact’. His coffin was carried to the graveside by members of the Gladstone Club.
Emma Jaggard (née Jaggard) (1845 – June 1937)
Emma was born in Brinkley, the daughter of Joseph (1807-1890) and Ann (née Plumb) (1810-1871). She was baptised in Brinkley on 8 June 1845 and grew up in the village where her father was a shepherd. Aged 16 she was working as a servant in a school in Kensington, run by Rev. George Frost, before marrying Reuben Jaggard in Brinkley when she was 23 years old.
After she was widowed she continued to live at 9 Cavendish Road and took in lodgers. She died at home aged 92 years old and her funeral was held on 12 June.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
Parish burial records
by Claire Martinsen
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