Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Jane Cass

1864 –29/05/1941

A domestic servant originally from Wales who married Joseph Cass before settling in Berkhamsted

Relatives

Joseph Cass (870) — husband

Unmarked grave Jane Cass (née Watkin) (1864-1941)

Jane was born about 1864 in Llanbedr, Denbighshire. It has not been possible to trace her parents, although from her marriage certificate her father was Benjamin Watkin and her mother’s maiden name was possibly Roberts, given that in 1871 she and her sister Sarah were living with their widowed grandfather John Roberts in Llanbedr.

Both sisters went into domestic service and in 1891 Jane was a housemaid working for Mr and Mrs Grahame and their adult daughters in King’s Road, Richmond, Surrey. They also employed a butler and cook and one other housemaid.

She married Joseph Cass, a woodman, on 17 December 1898 at St John’s, Merrow, Surrey. Her place of residence before the marriage was given as Boltby, in North Yorkshire, so they may have met before Joseph took up employment in Surrey as a woodman.

In 1901 they were living at Merrow Common, Surrey, where their children Mary Elizabeth (b.1900), and Joseph Watkin (b.1902) were born.

Jane’s younger sister Sarah married Frederick Smith, a licensee, in 1902 and at the time of the 1911 census Jane and Joseph Cass were staying with Frederick and Sarah Smith at the Swan Inn, Berkhamsted.

Joseph, who was shown as unemployed in 1911, died aged only 48 in November 1914 in the Union (workhouse) infirmary. He lies in Plot 870 with his brother-in-law.

Jane and the children cannot be traced in the 1921 census, but from a note against the 1939 Register it seems that Joseph jnr. served in the Merchant Marine towards the end of the First Word War. (He returned to the service in the Second World War and died in Taranto, Italy, in 1943 in a dry dock accident).

In the Register he and his wife Violet were living at 22, Cow Roast Estate, Wiggington and Jane, “incapacitated”, was living with them.

Jane died in May 1941 at 192 High Street, Berkhamsted and was buried here 29 May 1941 aged 77.