CFHS code : AL476
Parish : St Andrew the Less
Inscription : In Affectionate Remembrance of BENJAMIN WATERS d Dec 12 1886 aged 81 and of ANN his beloved wife d July 31 1869 also ANN TAYLOR daughter of the above d Dec 29 1908 aged 77
Monument : Headstone
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Monument
Inscription
Benjamin Waters (1805 – 12 December 1886)
Benjamin was born in Swaffham Prior and was the son of Matthew and Mary Waters. He was baptised in Swaffham Prior on 15 May 1806 and married Ann Ridd on 11 March 1828 at All Saints’ Church, Cambridge. Benjamin worked as a shoemaker and the couple had at least two children: William Ridd (1829-1881) and Ann (1831-1908). The family lived at 15 Gold Street (1841), 11 South Street (1851), 27 Bradmore Street (at least 1861 onwards). After Ann’s death he lived with his daughter Ann at Bradmore Street and by 1871 he had retired. He died at home and was buried at Mill Road Cemetery on 17 December 1886.
Ann Waters (née Ridd) (1803 – 31 July 1869)
Ann was the daughter of William and Martha (née Mulberry). She died at Bradmore Street aged 66 years old and her funeral was held on 3 August.
Ann Taylor (née Waters) (1831 – 29 December 1908)
Ann was the only daughter of Benjamin and Ann, and married widower Henry Ralph Speechly Taylor (1824-1861) on 27 September 1860 at Christ Church. Henry’s first wife Mary (née Haslop) had died in January 1860, and he had a nine-year-old daughter named Frances (1851). He was a clothier with a shop at 59 Sidney Street, where the family lived. The marriage was however short lived as he died in November 1861 aged 37 years old. Ann then returned to live with her parents at Bradmore Street and worked as a laundress. She lived alone at Bradmore Street after her father’s death. Ann died as a result of a house fire and an inquest was held into her death, which was reported in the Cambridge Independent Press under the headline of ‘Old Lady burned to Death in Cambridge’. The jury heard that a Mrs Hunt had gone to the house to make Ann some tea and left at 5pm. After she had left, Ann was in the habit of coming downstairs and ‘putting some turf in a shovel and covering it with paraffin oil to light the first the next morning’. Mrs Hunt returned at 5.20pm and found Ann with her clothes ‘smouldering’. Help was called for and she was rolled in some rugs before being taken to Addenbrookes Hospital, where she died of her injuries. Mr Henry Wiles identified the body and said ‘that he had tried to persuade the old lady not to live alone. She had ample means’ Henry was also the executor of Ann’s will as her brother had emigrated to New Zealand, and she was said to have no relatives in England. A verdict of ‘accidental death’ was returned and she was buried with her parents on 2 January 1909.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
Parish burial records transcribed by CFHS
by Claire Martinsen
[If you have any information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]