CFHS code : AG362
Parish : St Andrew the Great
Inscription : In Memory of GRACE TURNER d Jan 31 [1855] aged 3 also of SALLY wife of JAMES HOVELL TURNER d Apr 26th 1855 aged 32 also JAMES HOVELL TURNER d Dec 18 1895 in his 80th year
Monument : Headstone
Above information amended from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.202772, 0.13633764 – click here for location
Monument
This headstone, in the parish area of St Andrew the Great, lies behind the bench on the west path, next to the imposing stone column of Nutter.
Inscription
In Memory of GRACE TURNER who died Jan 31 1855 aged 3 years
Also of SALLY wife of JAMES HOVELL TURNER who died Apr 26th 1855 aged 32 years
Also JAMES HOVELL TURNER who died Dec 18 1895 in his 80th year
Grace Turner (1852 – 1855)
Grace was the third child of James and Sally Turner.
Sally Turner (née Smith) (1823 – 1855)
Sally was born in Hackney. She was the daughter of James and Sophia (née Beddome) Smith. Her father was a dignitary of the city of London corporation.
Sally married James on the 22nd March 1849 at St Mary Church Islington. They had four children; Edward (b 25/12/1849), Julia (b 1851), Grace (early 1852-1855) and George (b Dec 1852) before Sally’s early death.
James Hovell Turner (1816 – 1895)
James was born in Regent Street, Cambridge on 5th April 1816. He was the eldest child of Robert Bevan Turner and Hannah (née Nutter). They were a non conformist family. In 1829 his father died and the following year Hannah had her four children baptised in Cripplegate, London. In 1837 he became an excise officer but by 1847 had changed career and was a postmaster in Cambridge. He was made Head Postmaster in 1866 and moved into a flat above the main post office at 4 St Andrew’s Street. He remained as head postmaster until at least 1891 so must have made the move to the new PO building in 1885. (for an image of this building click the link below)
Family lore has passed down a few stories “As postmaster he was never a farthing out”, “200 staff from the post office took part in the Queen’s Jubilee parade in 1877” and “he had a long beard”.
During his tenure as postmaster he was mentioned several times in Josiah Chater’s Diaries.
Sept 1860: Seconded Josiah Chater as Ensign for the Volunteer 8th Cambridgeshire Rifle Corps, drawn from the ‘Working Men’s College’, and persuaded him to accept the office, as Mr H. Gotobed had objected and refused office.
Jun 1873 : A hoax that the Shah of Persia (who was in Britain) was arriving at Cambridge station was started from a telegram laid on Town Hall Keeper’s table, but had not come through the wires. ‘although the Mayor was told by Mr Turner, the Postmaster, that it was not right, he would persist in going and thus made a fool of. The Town Council are awfully wild.’
August 1877 : Josiah wrote in his diary ‘ Ted Turner came in and told us all about J. Neville who had been found out at last, having embezzled about £700 of the Improvement Commissioner’s money. A sub-committee was formed yesterday to find out the defelcations, and J.H. Turner is appointed accountant. Neville has been forging receipts and they expect to find out much more yet.’ Neville had been Assistant Clerk to the Improvement Commissioner since 1875.
James H Turner’s son George Turner was one of the first non-conformists to attend Cambridge University (St Catherine’s College) in the 1870s. He was Mayor of Cambridge during WW1, and married the daughter of William Eaden Lilley, later living in Bateman Street. George was cremated in 1929 at the newly established crematorium in Golders Green, London.
The ‘Hovell’ in his name comes from his paternal grandmother who was the sister of the first mayor of municipal Cambridge (1835-6), Thomas Hovell. The picture on the left is a copy of a portrait that hangs in the Guildhall in Cambridge.
So Thomas Hovell was James Hovell Turner’s great uncle.
[If you have any information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]
Sources:
Victorian Cambridge – Josiah Chater’s Diaries
https://archive.org/stream/pennyconsidereda00turn_3#page/n1/mode/2up
https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/Cambridge_Mayors_1835-onwards.pdf
http://britishpostofficearchitects.weebly.com/1885—petty-cury.html
by Mary Naylor, from information supplied by Dorothy Ball great, great granddaughter