CFHS code : MG38
Parish : St Mary the Great
Inscription : In Loving Memory of EDWARD WILLEY SMITH d March 12 1936 aged 70 MIRIAM LAYTON SMITH who joined him 12th April 1979 aged 90
Monument : Kerb stones
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.202275, 0.13745531 – click here for location
Monument
Inscription
Edward Willey Smith (17 May 1865 – 12 March 1936)
Edward was born at 10 Albion Grove, Islington and was the son of solicitors clerk Joseph Smith and his wife Mary Ann (née Layton). Joseph died when Edward was six months old and as Mary was originally from Cambridge they returned to live at Mill End Road, Cambridge. In 1881 Edward was working as a gardener, and his mother as a greengrocer. He married Mary Isabell Pitkin (1865-1904) on 16 June 1890 at St. Philips Church, Mill Road and they had four children: Edward Alexander Smith (1891-1971), Archibald John Layton (1897-1964), Harold William Howard (1900-1906) and Cyril Albert Manton (1900-1906).
In 1891 the couple were living at the lodge cottage at The Grange in Dogsthorpe, near Peterborough where Edward was groom/gardener to James and Sophia Craig. He later worked as a railway signalman and by 1901 the family were living at South Mimms, Hertfordshire. Mary Smith died in South Mimms in 1904 aged 39 years old and Edward then returned to live at City Road in Cambridge, working as a driver/chauffeur. His twin boys died two days apart in January 1906 from diptheria.
Edward married for a second time to Miriam Adams on 26 February 1908 at the Baptist Chapel on St. Andrew Street by which time he was living at Iona Cottage, 8 Gresham Road. The couple lived at Iona Cottage where he worked as a chauffeur/motor mechanic (1911) and had one daughter: Dorothy Mildred (1910-1992). He died at Addenbrooke’s Hosptial aged 70 years old.
Miriam Layton Smith (née Adams) (19 July 1888 – 12 April 1979)
Miriam was the daughter of agricultural labourer Samuel and Maria (née Graves) Adams and was born in Chittering, near Waterbeach. Aged 12 she was living with her parents and maternal grandmother on Mainstreet, Witchford and married widower Edward Smith when she was 19 years old.
After she was widowed she lived with daughter Dorothy at 172 Mill Road (1950 to at least 1960) and died aged 90 years old.
The Smith surname became double-barrelled and both Miriam and Dorothy went by the surname Layton-Smith as did Edward’s sons and decendants from his first marriage.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
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