6 Stone Street, Cambridge

The Ellum Family

Number 6  is one of a terrace of 8 houses on the south side of Stone Street.

1881

Robert Freezer, 34, bricklayer, b. Greenall, Norfolk

Frances Freezer, 36, b. Cambridge

Robert Freezer, 7, b. Cambridge

William Franks, 30, wife’s brother, bricklayer’s labourer, b. Cambridge

Alfred Scott, 10, adopted son, scholar, b. Cambridge

1887 – 1951

Electoral registers and Census returns show that the Ellum family lived at 6 Stone Street for over forty years.

In 1891 the Head of Household is Richard Ellum, a 39-year-old general labourer, from Great Shelford.  He is married to Jane, 32, who was born in Cambridge.

In 1891 they have five children living with them.  Richard John is 11 and recorded as a “Half time scholar”, no mention is made of what he does with the other half of his time.  Richard junior is actually Richard John Raynor, having been born before the marriage of Richard and Jane.

Edith May is 9 and a scholar.  Herbert is 6, Lillian Gertrude is 2 and baby Florence Maud is 4-months-old.  The eldest two children were both born in Trumpington, the rest in Cambridge.

Richard and his family remain at the property and, by the time of the 1901 Census, Jane is a Laundress, Edith is a factory hand, Herbert is a lime carter.

Richard junior has left home and is living in Islington. He marries Nellie Hart in 1907 and becomes a confectioner and newsagent.

The 1901 Census doesn’t always record scholars, but Lillian, now 12 and Florence, now 10, probably do attend School.  There are three new children since 1891, Mabel Kezia is 7, Ernest Jack is 4 and there’s new baby, 10-month-old Percy Douglas.

Edith moves to Ontario, Canada. In June 1910 she marries Fred Burnip, a carpenter. She died in 1915.

Herbert becomes a railway signalman and marries Susannah Stevens.  They live in March.

In 1911 Richard records that he and Jane have been married 28 years and all their eight children are still living.  Jane is doing plain needlwork.

Lillian and Mabel both work at the jam factory and Maud is a restaurant waitress.  Ernest is recorded as just “Jack”, he’s a butcher’s errand boy and 10-year-old Percy is at school.

Lillian marries George Collett in 1916.  They live on York Street for a while.

Florence marries William Tingey in 1924.  In 1939 they are living at 119 Gwydir Street.  She dies there in 1942.

Ernest was a Private in the 144th Labour Company Northamptonshire Regiment.  He married Jenny Farrow in 1923.

Percy married Beatrice Fiddaman in Hunstanton in 1928.  He’s a shop assistant.  By 1939 he’s a hardware salesman living in Chesterton.

Richard Ellum died in 1929.  Jane continued to live at 6 Stone Street, with her daughter Mabel, until her death in 1944.  Mabel remains at the property until her marriage to Francis Todd in 1951.

Sources: 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911 UK Census, 1939 Register, Cambridgeshire Baptisms, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations 1858-1995), British Army Service Records (Burnt Documents), Cambridge Marriages,