71 Kingston Street, Cambridge

A Widow & a House Painter

1881

Samuel Bavey, a 28 year old printer’s pressman, lives here with his London-born wife Jane, 26.  The couple have a two year old son, Arthur.

1891

In 1891, 71 Kingston Street is the home of 59 year old Caroline Russell from Norfolk. She is listed as married though her husband is not home on census night. If we look to the 1881 census, Caroline is living in Haddenham with her husband Richard Russell, aged 47 at the time, working as an agricultural labourer. Caroline, aged 48 at the time, is listed as a Dressmaker. Looking further, Richard Russell, born 1833 in Haddenham, is listed on a death certificate in 1890, buried in Haddenham the same year. Caroline is, in fact, a widow by the time she lives in Cambridge in 1891.

Also present in 1891 is a lodger, William Matthew, a 22 year old Waiter.

1901

In 1901, 71 Kingston Street is home to the Ruse family. Bessie Ruse, aged 26, from Thornton, Suffolk, is married to Frank Ruse, a 28 year old House Painter. They have one child, a newborn daughter, who is of yet unnamed. Also living with them is Frank’s brother, 21 year old Octavius Walter Ruse, a harness maker.

In 1906 Octavius marries Sarah Jane Smart in Lacock, Wiltshire.  The couple move to 5 Oswald Terrace, Sturton Street by 1911.

1911

By 1911, The unnamed newborn daughter has since been called Doris, and is now 10 years old and in school. Bessie is now 36, and Frank, now 38, has become a Plumber as well as being a decorator.

Sources: 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911 UK Census, Civil Registration Death Index (1837-1915),