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102 Sturton Street
The Family of a Carpenter & Grocer
1881 – 1925
Frederick William Fortin and Sarah Fortin lived here from 1872.
On the 1881 Census, Frederick is 50 years old and a carpenter and joiner. He was born in Hinxton and is married to Sarah (nee Green), from Littlebury in Essex. Sarah is Frederick’s second wife, and is recorded on this census as a shopkeeper. The 1871 Census shows a widowed Frederick living at 2 Albion Row with his daughters Edith Ann and Eliana Sarah.
Eliana (spelled Elena on the 1881 census) is 18 a teacher. Sarah and Frederick have five children of their own. Rosa Emma (14), Frederick Thomas (8), Percy Green (4) and Mabel Jane (4) are all scholars. The youngest is Herbert William (1).
Eliana married Alfred Edward Moore in 1887. Alfred lived two doors away at 106 Sturton Street as a child. He now works as a letterpress printer. The couple move to Nottingham.
In 1891 Sarah is still recorded as a shop keeper. Their daughter Edith Ann, aged 30, is living at home and working as a milliner. Rosa is now 24 and still teaching. Percy, Mabel, and Herbert are all at school.
By the end of 1891 Rosa has married Joseph Robinson Tickle. The 1901 Census finds them in Prestatyn, Wales, where Joseph is working as a famer. However, by 1911, they are living at Te Atatu in New Zealand. Joseph and Rosa are buried in Auckland.
Frederick Thomas married Annie Collins in 1895, and they can be found living in Frome in 1901. Frederic has dropped the K from the end of his name (no records after his marriage spell it with the K) and is a pianoforte merchant and tuner.
By 1901 Frederick has retired and only Percy and Mabel remain at home. Percy is a bootmaker and Mabel a milliner.
Percy married Elizabeth Gilbert (daughter of Publican George Gilbert of ‘The Malt & Hops’ on Ainsworth Street) in 1905. They move to Leighton Buzzard and Percy remains a bootmaker. He served with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in World War 1.
Frederick died on the 26th of February 1910.
On the 1911 Census, Sarah Fortin is a 72-year-old widow running a small grocery from her home. Mabel is 34 and recorded as “mother’s help”.
Edith died in September 1918. She never married, and her probate document names her sister Eliana as sole beneficiary.
Sarah remained at 102 Sturton Street until her death on the 28th of March 1925, she was 87.
Frederick, Sarah and their daughters Edith and Mabel are buried together in Mill Road Cemetery.
1939 Register
John E Goodliffe, born 1891, General Shopkeeper
Beatrice G Goodliffe, born 1889, Housewife
Annie Goldenborg, born 1903, unpaid domestic duties
[one closed record]
By 1945 John and Beatrice have moved next door to 104 Sturton Street.
Source – 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911 UK Census, Mill Road Cemetery, Civil Registration Marriage Index (1837-1915), New Zealand Electoral Rolls, New Zealand Death Index, 1939 Register,
RF sent this note in 2023: I believe that my great-grandmother, Miss Green was the head mistress of one of the Cambridge Higher Grade Schools for Girls until about 1890 when she had to leave the position on getting married to my great-grandfather, Mr Fortin. He was a cabinet maker and lived at 102 Sturton Street and his wife, who was no longer allowed to teach, then ran a small general stores from home. They still lived at 102 Sturton Street in the early 1920s. One of their sons also became a teacher and was head master of Roehampton Church School in SW London (where my father and many years later our 3 daughters went to school) for some 20 years until about 1938. It still exists. He married a Miss Sarah Chalmers who was apparently the daughter of a blacksmith and became an accomplished pianist.
In the 1861 census Sarah Green is head of a household in Kingstead Road, Sedgeford, Norfolk. She is a school mistress, born in Littlebury Essex. In 1871 census she is living at 3 Albion Row as a boarder. This address is next door to Frederick W Fortin, widower, whom she married on 26 December 1981 at Littlebury in Essex.
Source Ancestry family chart and census data.
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