CFHS code : AL434
Parish : St Andrew the Less
Inscription : In Memory of MARY ANN wife of CHARLES SIMPKIN d Jan 21 1858 also AUGUSTA SIMPKIN d July 29 186[5] aged 3 also THOMAS son of C & M A SIMPKIN d Dec 14 1883 aged 39
Monument : Headstone
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Monument
This headstone sands 1 row east of the central path half way between the centre circle and the and the north path in the parish of St Andrew the Less. It is hidden under a yew tree and parts of the carved inscription are hard to read. Their is a small cross carved at the top of the stone.
Inscription
In Memory of MARY ANN wife of CHARLES SIMPKIN died Jan 21 1858
Also AUGUSTA SIMPKIN died July 29 1863 aged 3 years
Also THOMAS son of C & M A SIMPKIN who died Dec 14 1883 aged 39 years
The Cemetery Lodge is at the Mill Road entrance to read more about the job of the custodian click HERE
Mary Ann Simpkin (née Milburn) (1807 – 21 January 1858) Simpkin is sometimes recorded as Simkin and Milburn as Millburn
Mary was born in Chatham, Kent and baptised there on 8 November 1807. She was the daughter of Thomas and Ann and married Charles Simpkin (1811-1885) on 3 August 1835 in Barnwell. Charles was a college servant and shoemaker. They had at least six children: Charles (1837-), James (1837-1915), Emily Anna (1838-), Edwin (1839), Thomas (1843-1883) and Kezia (1847-1911). The family lived at Falcon Yard, South St (1841) and 13 Eden Street (1851), before moving to live at Mill Road Cemetery Lodge, where Charles was the custodian. Mary died at the Lodge aged 50.
Her husband Charles married for a second time in 1859 to Keziah Thring (1819-1886). Keziah was a milliner and had been lodging with the Simpkin family at Eden Street in 1851. He remained custodian of the Cemetery until at least 1863, but then later as a college servant and had moved to Tennis Court Road by 1870. Charles died at Victoria Road in December 1885 and Kesia a year later. They are both buried at St Lukes churchyard.
Emily Augusta Simpkin (1860 – 29 July 1863)
Emily Augusta was born in Cambridge in 1860 and in the 1861 census she was living with her grandfather and his 2nd wife Keziah at the Cemetery Lodge. We have not found a a baptism for Emily so do not know who her parents were. She died at the Cemetery Lodge and was buried in the Cemetery on 1 August 1863.
Thomas Simpkin (31 December 1843 – 14 December 1883)
Thomas was privately baptised in the church of St Andrew the Great when his parents Charles & Mary Ann were living in Falcon Yard. He worked as a printer and married Elizabeth Grace Grieve (1848-1939) in Gillingham on 5 August 1876. The couple had four children: Charles Percy (1877-1927), Thomas William (1879-1918), Florence Grace (1881-1957) and Ann Grieve Milburn (1882-). In 1881the family were living in Mile End, and Thomas died at 26 Stanton Street, Peckham just before his fortieth birthday. His body was returned to Cambridge and he was buried on 21 December.
Mary Naylor
Sources
CHFHS Transcripts of Parish records
Free BMD
British Newspaper archives online
[If you have any information about this person, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]