12 Ram Yard

History of 12 Ram Yard

1841 unnumbered

David Scott, 41, cook

Sarah Scott, 41

David, 12

Emma, 11

Robert, 8

Thomas, 6

John, 4

Christopher Scott, 2

George Duffell, 20, servant

Emily Woollard, 20, servant

Elizabeth Allen, 30, servant

Elizabeth Sarkin, 17, servant

(Catholics in Cambridge ed. Nicholas Rogers) p97f: Christopher Scott was born on Christmas Day 1838, the youngest son of David and Sarah Scott of Ram Yard, a narrow alley off Round Church Street. He was baptized on 20th January 1839 at the church of the Holy Sepulchre (Round Church) where his father, a cook at St John’s College, was churchwarden. Early in his life he was thought to have the qualities for ordination and, with this in mind, he was sent as a boarder to study at St Peter’s Collegiate School in London. At home for holidays he studied in the top room in the family house in Ram Yard and sang in the choir of Holy Sepulchre; later he occasionally read lessons during services there.

Scott’s conversion to the Catholic Church aged 19 was devastating for his devout Anglican family . Their son had been destined to become a clergyman in the Church of England. Scott’s mother was especially upset, as she had read in an ‘expensive’ book that Scott could now buy an indulgence for one shilling. This would allow his to commit any sin, even taking his own mother’s life!

1851 (12) [Ram Yard, now built over, was a road which diverged from the western end of Round Church Street and then ran parallel with it to the north]

David James Scott, 50, college cook, b Cambridge

Sarah Scott, 51, b Cambridge

David James Scott, 22, b Cambridge

Jane Burling, servant, 23,  b Cambs

Jena Marshall, servant, 26, b Cambs