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14 Milford Street

A college servant, three dressmaking sisters, and a cooper

14 Milford Street is one of a terrace of four houses on the north side of the street, and built in the 1870s. In trade directories up to 1935 it is referred to as Tacolnestone Terrace.

1881 census

Joseph Buttress, head, 36, college messenger, b. Kings Langley, Hertfordshire
Sophia Buttress, wife, 59, b. Greenwich
Sarah Bullen, servant, 14, domestic servant, b. Old Wimpole, Cambridgeshire

1891 census

Martha Taylor, head, 60, dressmaker, b. Cambridge
Mary Taylor, sister, 57, dressmaker, b. Cambridge
Jane Cook, sister, widow, 58, dressmaker, b. Cambridge

1901 census

Martha Taylor, head, 70, living on own means, b. Cambridge
Jane Cook, sister, widow, 68, living on own means, b. Cambridge

The Taylor sisters’ births (1829, 1830 and 1834), and those of two older siblings, Andrew and Hannah, were recorded in the official register of births for Protestant Dissenters. Their parents were Joseph Taylor, a merchant, and Elizabeth née Clipsham, from Kettering, Northamptonshire. Both Joseph and Elizabeth had died by 1851, and the eldest sister, Eliza, took responsibility as head of household. The sisters worked as dressmakers or milliners, and only Jane married. Mary died in 1896, Martha in 1907 and Jane in 1908.

1911 census

Alfred Bye, head, 31, cooper, b. City of London
Lilian Bye, wife, 29, b. Paddington, London
Married 2 years

Alfred Bye’s father Charles was from Stetchworth in Cambridgeshire, but he was working at a brewery near London Bridge when his children were born.

By the time of the 1918 electoral register, the residents were Edward George Tuck and Lucy Tuck. Edward, a carpenter, had four sons by his first wife Cecilia. The youngest, Leonard, died in active service in 1915. A letter from his elder brother William was published in the Cambridge Independent Press (9 July 1915, page 6), in which he tells a friend about the sad news. William Tuck was serving in the Royal Marines at the time, but he survived the war.

Edward Tuck died in 1930. There is no entry for 14 Hooper Street in the 1939 England and Wales Register, but we know from the electoral register that Lucy Tuck was still living at the address in 1960.

Sources

UK census records (1841 to 1911), General Register Office birth, marriage and death indexes (1837 onwards), the 1939 England and Wales Register, electoral registers, trade directories, and local newspapers available via www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.

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