CFHS code : ED71
Parish : St Edward
Inscription : In Memory of ALFRED HENRY SADD b May 24 1851 d Sep [7] [1914] ROBERT THOMAS SADD b March [1815] d July 8 189[4] MARY ANN SADD b March 31 1820 d Feb 4 1881 LLEWELLYN SADD b Oct 16 1856 d Sep 30 1857
Monument : Ground slab
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.203225, 0.13712041 – click here for location
Monument
This scroll set within kerbstones, lies midway between the central path and the west path towards the north of the parish of St Edward. Many of the metal letters are missing.
Inscription
In Memory of ALFRED HENRY SADD born May 24 1851 died Sep [7] 1914
ROBERT THOMAS SADD born March 1815 died July 8 1894
MARY ANN SADD born March 31 1820. Died Feb. 4 1881
LLEWELLYN SADD born Oct. 16. 1856 died Sep. 30. 1857
Relationships: Mother, Father, two sons
Robert Thomas Sadd (5 March 1815 – 8 July 1894)
Robert was born in Cambridge. He was the son of Robert and Elizabeth Sadd, and his father was a hairdresser and then jeweller. Robert Junior followed his father into the jewellery business and by 1841 was living at 7 Kings Parade.
He married Mary Ann Fuller on 21 September 1843 at St. Edward’s Church. They had at least 10 children together: Robert George [1844-1932], Frederick William [1846-1851], Charles Edward [1847-1851], Emily Anne [1850-1912], Alfred Henry [1851-1914], William Edward [1853-1932], Arthur Gilbert [1854-1937], Llewellyn [1856-1857], Harriett Edith [1858-1937] and Herbert John [1862-1897]. Information from descendants indicate that haemophilia might have run in the family, and been responsible for the early deaths of three of Robert and Mary’s sons.
Robert lived at 7 Kings Parade for over 50 years until he died, running his jewellery, silversmith and optician’s business from there. He died aged 76 years old and left effects valued at £200, 7s.
Mary Ann Sadd [nee Fuller] (31 March 1820 – 4 February 1881)
Mary Ann was the daughter of William, head waiter at the Hoop Inn and his wife Ann. Her father died tragically in November 1829. The accident, which occurred at the Hoop Inn, was reported in many national newspapers. William had apparently held a bottle of wine between his thighs to pull the cork but the bottle shattered and a shard of glass pierced a major artery in his leg. He was able to call for help but died within 10 minutes, from loss of blood. There were several versions of the story one saying some gentlemen had complained that the bottle of champagne they had been given was no good and he was opening second bottle in the cellar, others recounting a wish of his to die at the inn he had worked at for 29 years.
He did not leave a will but it seems his widow, Ann and their 4 children were well provided for. Ann, her son Frederick and daughter Elizabeth had all died by 1839 and are buried with William in Fen Ditton cemetery.
In the 1841 census a 20 year old Mary Fuller was living independently a few doors away from the Sadd family on Kings Parade. Her sister Harriet was residing with the King family in New Square. Both married well and had presumably comfortable lives with servants to help in the home.
Mary Ann died at Kings Parade aged 60 years old.
Llewellyn Sadd (1856-1857)
Llewellyn was the infant son of Robert and Mary Ann Sad. He died aged 11 months at King’s Parade. He was the second son of theirs to die in infancy. Charles Edward had died aged 3 years old in 1851.
Alfred Henry Sadd (24 May 1851 – 7 September 1914)
Alfred followed his father into the jewellery and opticians business and ran the shop at 7 Kings Parade. In January 1877 the partnership was formalised and the shop was renamed Robert Sadd and Son. Albert lived at King’s Parade for his whole life, and never married.
He was variously described on census records as a jeweller, optician, dealer in curios and numismatist [collector of coins, medals and bank notes] . In Spring 1914 he decided to move the shop from King’s Parade to St. Edward’s Passage at Michaelmas. He wanted to remain in the parish of St. Edward and wrote a ‘witty’ poem to indicate why he was moving:
To the Landlord
Trade is bad; rents and taxes are high; The premises are older, and so am I.
To his friends and relatives
They raised the rent to such an extent That he would not stay longer, so out he went
Then, to speak the next reason we seek, They made him close Thursday every week.
Then trade was bad – not much to be had, And he was getting old. Now isn’t that
Sadd.
Alfred died in tragic circumstances after falling from the roof of King’s College Chapel. He was found on the gravel path of the west end of the chapel in the early hours by the night watchman. The inquest heard that he must have climbed the scaffolding which was in place around the chapel. His housekeeper Miss Finlayson testified that he had ‘no serious indisposition’, although he had been worried about the war. On the day before his death he had gone swimming at Clayhithe, walked the dog and had his dinner at 2 o’clock. He had then had a nap, walked the dog again and had his tea before going to bed at 10.30pm. The next she had heard was when the porter from King’s College woke her to tell her he had sad news. The inquest also heard he was a keen diver and that his favourite daive was ‘an armless dive. He would dive in head first with his hands by his side’. There was some discussion as to whether the thick fog that day had conufsed him to think he was diving into water. His brother William Henry told the inquest that he had not seen his brother for some years, but he did not think anything was worrying him. William Sadd thought that it was possible that Alfred had thought he was diving. Alfred’s other brother Arthur Gilbert had seen his brother the previous week and said that he look ‘worried and thin’. The jury did not feel that they had sufficient evidence to return a verdict of ‘threw himself down’ as that would make his death suicide. Instead they found that he was ‘found dead in the grounds of King’s College with a fractured skull, caused by falling from the top of King’s College Chapel’.
The Cambridge Independent Press printed a short obituary which noted that Alfred was a keen swimmer and swam every day at the Bathing Sheds, summer and winter. ‘He was a magnificent swimmer, and diver, and delighted in skating. In 1886-1887 he was the proprietor with Mr Frank Tomson of Lingay Fen. They flooded on a Thrusday and skating began on the following Sunday, and they took £40 on the first day. Everywhere the late Mr. Sadd was popular for his genial disposition and cheery nature. He was the life of any gathering and carried a feeling of good fellowship wherever he went. No man in Cambridge could be more missed by his friends than he will be, for no man was less appropriately named.’
He was buried at Mill Road Cemetery on Thursday 10 September, after a service at St. Edwards where there ‘was a large attendance of mourners’. His sister and two brothers were the chief mourners at the burial.
by Claire Martinsen and Mary Naylor
Sources:
Ancestry
British Newspaper Archives
CFHS Transcripts of parish records
Family search
[If you have any further information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]