11 & 12 Pembroke Street Cambridge

12 Pembroke Street, Cambridge

History of 12 Pembroke Street

1851

Joseph Leach, 44, carpenter, b Cambridge

Mary Ann Leach, 22, unmarried, b Cambridge

The Cambridge Independent Press 6th June 1846 reported the events of 11th May 1846 in which a 19th year old girl set, Mary Leach, out to walk to haverhill. She is described as a steady respectable young woman residing as a servant with Mr R Fetch, merchant. The censuses only appear to have one possible candidate for each of the 1841 and 1851 censuses, a Mary Leach born circa 1827 working as a servant in Water Street in 1841, and Mary Ann Leach of 12 Pembroke Street in 1851. In the assumption that this Mary Ann is the young woman referred to in the newspaper the story is reported here. There was also a Mary Leach of approximately the same age who was resident in Haverhill in 1841, aged 13, and who married in Haverhill, in 1849, a James Webb.

“They would be damned if they didn’t”: Violence against a Cambridge servant, 1846
This disturbing report from the Cambridge Independent Press of 6 June 1846 provides a rare and detailed account of the dangers faced by women travelling alone in the countryside around Cambridge. Mary Leach, a 19-year-old domestic servant employed by Cambridge merchant R. Fetch, was walking from Cambridge to visit family in Haverhill when she was repeatedly assaulted along the road through Cherry Hinton, Fulbourn and Balsham by two well-dressed men, one believed to be an undergraduate riding a black horse.

Mary fought her attackers with remarkable courage. During a succession of assaults she scratched one man’s face until it bled, gave him a black eye, and kicked his older companion as they repeatedly attempted to drag her into roadside plantations or force her into a waiting chaise. After nearly eight hours on the road she reached Haverhill exhausted, fainting several times along the way. The newspaper records that she subsequently suffered prolonged hysterical attacks, leaving her unable to return to domestic service.

The paper clearly believed the younger assailant belonged to the University, although no names were ever published and no prosecution followed. Whether or not he was an undergraduate cannot now be proved, but the report reflects a wider contemporary perception that some privileged university students behaved with impunity towards local women. Nineteenth-century Cambridge newspapers contain numerous reports of drunkenness, disorder, assaults and harassment involving students, particularly in the streets surrounding the colleges and on roads leading out of the town. Most students behaved responsibly, but wealth, social status and the University’s separate legal jurisdiction could make successful prosecutions difficult.

Mary Leach’s experience also highlights the vulnerability of domestic servants, whose employment often required long journeys on foot and whose respectability could itself be questioned if they reported sexual violence. The detailed newspaper account preserves the voice of one young woman who resisted extraordinary violence and reminds us that the history of Cambridge is not only that of its colleges, but also of the women whose lives unfolded beyond their walls.

ATROCIOUS CASE. On the 11th ultimo, Mary Leach, aged 19, a very steady, respectable young woman, residing as servant with Mr. R. Fetch, merchant, started from that town on foot to visit her friends at Haverhill, intending walk by the Hills’ road, in the hope of getting “a lift”. When on the railway bridge (about one o’clock in the day), she was overtaken and passed by a gentleman, whom she supposed to be an undergraduate, riding a black horse. His conduct and pointed manner towards induced her to expect some familiarity from him ; and, as he proceeded on the Hills Road, she, in order to avoid him, turned the Cherryhinton road, which also led (via Balsham) to Haverhill. She very shortly, met six gentlemen on horseback, whom she believed to be undergraduates, riding towards Cambridge, attended by three persons apparently servants or grooms, on foot, and whom she imagined to be coming from some races. About a mile from the village of Cherryhinton she was overtaken by the man on the black hors, who had at first ridden up the Hills’ road ; he immediately entered into conversation with her, jumped off his horse, and in spite of her resistance, seized and insisted on carrying her basket, which, just before they reached Cherryhinton he threw into the road and galloped on. She continued her walk without seeing anything of the same party up the Fulbourn Road but, about half a mile from Cherry Hinton, he suddenly made his appearance from behind a high hedge, where it seems, he had secreted himself, jumped from his horse, and walking by her side continued putting his hand around her waist and taking liberties; at the distance of a few yards he tried to pull her up a roadway, and after hanging his horse to a post at the corner of the hedge, succeeded in dragging her a short distance and as she says, had nearly overpowered her, when she called out that his horse was getting away; he went to secure it and left her after offering £5 and then £10 to comply with his solicitations. She states that he palled her about a great deal and she had a hard struggle with him. He rode back towards Cambridge, and she continued her journey not expecting to see any more of the party. Between Fulbourn and Mr King’s farm (Great  Shardelows) she was overtaken by a person riding in a small dark coloured four-wheel chaise with grey pony, who appeared to be a gentleman of about 40, and whom she asked to give him a ride, but, in consequence of his immediately inquiring if she had seen a young man on a black horse and something in his manner exciting her suspicion, she at once declined to ride, but he jumped out of the chaise, hold catching hold of her, declared she should ride and held her while her former assailant rode up, when they both endeavoured to get her into the chaise, the elder one cautiously taking off her bonnet and shawl and placing them on the ground before the struggle commenced; they used very disgusting language and said “they would be would be damned if they didn’t both go with her, and she should not have anything either.” At length not succeeding they deslated and went back towards Cambridge.  She again continued her journey and did not stop anywhere in consequence of knowing nobody on the road and the the great dislike  she felt to mention the circumstance. On arriving at the spot where the Newmarket and London road crosses that from Balsham to Cambridge she was again overtaken by the two parties, the young one jumped from his horse and swore he would pull her into the plantation adjoining the road and the elder one assisted him, again taking off her bonnet and shawl, and here she must have struggled most desperately; there are traces where two attempts were made to drag her up the bank; she gave the young man a black eye, and scratched his face till the blood trickled down his check and kicked the elder of her assailants as be was going to take hold of her legs: and he not only gave up the attempt himself, but persuaded his companion to follow his example and they both shortly returned towards Cambridge. Her dress was torn nearly all round the waist, and was pulled open behind from top to bottom, and her hair was in a most disordercd state; she was engaged nearly a quarter of an hour in arranging her dress, and then again proceeded homewards, but was once more overtaken by the same parties before her arrival at Balsham, but on this occasion they did not use much violence, but offered her money, and held out every inducement for her to return to Cambridge with them. On their, at length, taking their departure, and again returning  towards Cambridge, feeling worn out, and as she termed it ‘mauled’  with what she had undergone, she fainted by the roadside; when she returned to consciousness she proceeded homewards, but fainted twice again before she had reached her destination, which she did not succeed in doing until nine o’clock at night.

The unfortunate consequence of the atrocious outrage on this poor girl is, that she has been almost ever since subject to hysterical fits, during which she struggles most violently and utters all the exclamations which it is supposed she used when the attacks were made upon her, and of course has been rendered unable to return to her situation, and at present unfit for service, and it was not until Thursday, 21st of May, that her statement could be taken in writing, and then she experienced a recurrence of the fit during the recital. The parties, in all probability, reside in Cambridge, and the young woman could identify them were she to see them again. The police have, in vain, endeavoured to find them out. The man, in the four-wheel chaise, is described as being dark and rather stout, and dressed in a black coat and black kid gloves, waistcoat, black satin stock, and gold pie and chain, and black kid gloves.

The young man, on the black horse, supposed to be an undergraduate, had on a dark frock coat, light waistcoat and neckerchief, and light striped lavender trowsers, fastened under the boot; he had light hair, no whiskers, and wee rather a sawny or sheepish-looking person, thin, and looking as if he had been ill; he is supposed to have carried about with him for sometime the mark on his eye and the scratch on his cheek.

[f this notice had been inserted immediately after the lamentable and disgraceful occurrence above detailed, there can be little doubt but that the parties would have beca dis covered. It was a mistake to suppose that the publication would have thwarted the ends of justice ; it would have had the reverse effect; while the delay has given time for wounds to heal, horses to be exchanged, and the delinquents to escape.]

The story of Mary Leach was described by Charlotte Rose in ‘The Longest Journey’, CALH 2026.

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1861

John Scrutton,  40, foreman livery yard, b Suffolk

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1913

The Misses Boning, typists

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1962

Moore John and Beeson, typewriter dealers