CFHS code : MG184
Parish : St Mary the Great
Inscription : In Memory of EMMA ELIZABETH ROBINSON the beloved daughter of WILLIAM and EMMA FANNY VAIL late of Corn Exchange Street d May 10 1901 in the 45th year of her age also GEORGE LESLIE the infant son of GEORGE THOMPSON and ROSA COLLINGS FARTHING of Spennymoor Durham grandson of WILLIAM and EMMA FANNY VAIL d August 17 [1893] aged 3 months also WILLIAM VAIL father of the above d Nov [6] 1907 aged 75 also EMMA FANNY wife of the above d July 1 1917 aged 84
Monument : Headstone
Above information amended from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.202027, 0.1382483 – click here for location
Monument
Inscription
‘In Memory of EMMA ELIZABETH ROBINSON the beloved daughter of
WILLIAM and EMMA FANNY VAIL late of Corn Exchange Street who departed this life May 10 1901 in the 45th year of her age.
Also GEORGE LESLIE the infant son of GEORGE THOMPSON and ROSA COLLINGS FARTHING of Spennymoor Durham grandson of WILLIAM and EMMA FANNY VAIL died August 17 [1893] aged 3 months
Also WILLIAM VAIL father of the above died Nov [6] 1907 aged 75
Also EMMA FANNY wife of the above died July 1 1917 aged 84
Emma Elizabeth Robinson (née Vail) (1857 – 10 May 1901)
Emma was baptised on 1 March 1857 at St. Andrew the Great and married William White Robinson, a shoemaker, in 1879 at the church of St Mary the Great. William was the son of James and Alice Robinson. They started married life at 23 Market Hill, Cambridge. This was also the White-Robinson family business. They had at least four children: Lillian Emma White (1881-1958) William White (1882-) Edith White (1884-1949) and Thomas Allen White (1886-1965) before William’s death in 1896 in Addenbrooke’s hospital, at the age of 39. Emma then moved to Earl Street where she kept a lodging house. She died at home ‘after a short illness’ aged 44 years old.
George Leslie Farthing (c.May 1893 – 17 August 1893)
George was the eldest son of George Thompson Farthing (1864-1931) and Rosa Collings (née Vail). The couple married in Cambridge in 1892 and moved to live in George’s native County Durham where he had a chemist shop at 13 High Street, Spennymoor (1894). George was born in Spennymoor but died in Cambridge aged 3 months old.
William Vail (1932 – 6 December 1907)
William was born on January 6th 1832 to William and Elizabeth Vail of Downing Street,Cambridge. Like his father he became an ironmonger and whitesmith. By 1861 he was also listed as a bell hanger. He married Emma Fanny Collings on August 15th 1855, in the parish church of St Botolph. They had at least seven children: Emma Elizabeth, Alice Fanny (1859-1931), William Robert (1860-1929), Ellen Eliza (1862-1888), Rosa Collings (1865-1946), Frederick John (1867-) and Lilian Agnes (1869-1943). The family lived at 6 Earl Street and later at 15 Corn Exchange Street (1901). In December 1902 the business was transferred to their son William and the couple retired to live at Keston, 152 Tenison Road where William died.
Emma Fanny Vail (née Collings) (1842 -1 July 1917)
Fanny was the daughter of printer/compositor Robert and Fanny (née Kempton) Collings and grew up at 16 Mill Lane. She died at Tenison Road in 1917.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Ian Bent with additional information by Claire Martinsen
[If you have further information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]