CFHS code : AL293
Parish : St Andrew the Less
Inscription : In Loving Memory of JACOB UNWIN d March 22 1898 aged 60 also of SUSAN his beloved wife d June 27th 1923 aged 76
Monument : Headstone (half)/Kerb stones
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Monument
This small headstone set within kerbs is located in the parish of Andrew the Less. 3 rows west of the east path just as it curves to become the north path. The inscription of metal letters is in good order. it’s position near a large tree where the grass is often left to grow long means it can be hard to find.
Inscription
In Loving Memory of JACOB UNWIN who fell asleep March 22 1898 aged 60 years
“In Jesus’ keeping”
Also of SUSAN his beloved wife who was called home June 27th 1923 aged 76 years
“Reunited”
Jacob Unwin (1838 – 22 March 1898)
Jacob was born in Great Chesterford, ten miles south of Cambridge and was the son of William and Amelia. He grew up in Great Chesterford where his father was an agricultural labourer, but had moved to lodge in Cambridge by 1861 where he worked as a coal porter. He married Susan Pilgrim in 1866 and they had two daughters: Susan Amelia (1867-1958) and Ellen Louisa (1869-1952). The family lived at 14 Staffordshire Street (1871), 8 & 9 Nelson Street (1881) and Edward Street (at least 1891 onwards). He worked as a coal porter (1871), general labourer (1881) and foreman in a timber yard (1891).
He was a student at the Nelson Street Friends’ Adult School and when the school celebrated its 21st anniversary in October 1894 he played a part in the celebrations as ‘the senior scholar’. The school was said to be an organisation which worked ‘quietly in our midst in the cause of temperance, thrift and Christianity’. In 1894 the average attendance was 81 students. It was later said that Jacob was a student of the best type and had acted as Secretary to the Sick Club for over twenty years and ‘did this voluntary work as heartily as if well paid for it’. The Sick Club was a form of benefits club, whose members paid in just under £1 per year and could be called on in times of illness. Jacob died at home aged 60 years old and was buried at Mill Road Cemetery on 26 March.
Susan Unwin (née Pilgrim) (1847 – 27 June 1923)
Susan was born in Stanhoe, fifteen miles north east of Kings Lynn and baptised there on baptised on 9 February 1847. She was the daughter of Valentine Robert Pilgrim and his wife Susan, sister of Sarah and Frederick and the family had moved to Cambridge by at least 1850. Her father worked as a smith and boiler maker, and her mother was a dressmaker. The Pilgrim family lived at 16 Staffordshire Street and Susan married Jacob when she was 19 years old. Aftter she was widowed she continued to live at Edward Street with daughter Ellen and both worked from home as dressmakers (1901). By 1911 both Susan and Ellen had moved to 12 Adam and Eve Row and she was still working as a dressmaker. The census of 1911 marked her as being ‘totally deaf from 06’ and as she had not been marked deaf on the 1901 census, she had probably lost her hearing in 1906. Susan died aged 76 years old.
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]