Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Sarah Grace (794)

1829 –06/07/1912

Born in Wingrave, married Charles Grace of Tring

• Karen Evans

Plot 794 Sarah Grace Died 6^th July 1912

 Sarah was born in Wingrave, Buckinghamshire in 1829, the daughter of Robert and Mary Ann Griffin (nee Paine). Her father was a baker and part of a family with a long baking tradition in the village. The earliest mention was in 1765 when the first Robert Griffin (Sarah’s great grandfather) and his young family moved into Windmill Farmhouse. Robert was the fourth son of the Stewkley village baker and moved to Wingrave to start up a new baking business; he appears to have been an ambitious and successful man, and his descendants continued to be the village bakers for another two hundred years until the 1950s.

Sarah’s parents married at St Peter and St Paul church, Wingrave on 6^th October 1814 and proceeded to have 10 children all baptised at Wingrave and brought up in the Mill End part of the parish. Sadly, being comfortably well-off did not stop infant mortality as their daughter Amelia was buried at the Independent Baptist Chapel aged only eight, in 1827. Sarah’s siblings were:

William baptised on 5^th January 1815

George baptised 25^th April 1816

Obed baptised on 3^rd August 1817

Eli Charles, baptised on 25^th November 1819

Eliza, baptised on 29^th April 1821

Ann Esther Charlotte, baptised on 6^th January 1825

Amelia, born in 1827, and died on 21^st February 1835.

Sarah born in 1829

Jemima born in 1832

 Sarah’s mother Mary Ann died at Wingrave on 12^th April 1842, with her death announced in The Buck Herald.

The Griffin family appear to have moved their church attendance from the parish church at Wingrave to the Congregational chapel in the village, as Sarah’s grandfather, John Griffin, who was living with Sarah’s family prior to his death, was buried there on 26^th September 1845.

By 1851 Sarah and most of her siblings had left the family home. The only child remaining with their widowed father, Robert, was Sarah’s sister, Jemima. Sarah was living in Dunstable High Street, as a nursemaid in the household of a Coal merchant called Edward Lockhart. Her eldest brother, William had followed the family trade and was a baker in the village of Grendon Underwood. Sarah’s second brother George also became a baker and appears to have been the only member of the family who stayed in Wingrave, later taking over the mill at Mill End, Wingrave. Sarah’ brother, Eli Charles, moved further than any of her siblings. On 19^th June 1842 Eli Charles married Elizabeth Bonham at Wingrave, then five years later Eli, his wife Elizabeth and two children boarded the ship, Pheobe, and landed at Port Adelaide in Australia, on 27^th March 1847.

 On 27^th April 1853 Sarah’s sister Jemima married Thomas Goode, a baker, at St Mary’s Church, Aylesbury. Three years later Sarah’s father, Robert Griffin died at Wingrave on 1^st September 1856.

By 1861 Sarah had returned back to the village of her birth and was living in the house of her maternal uncle, William Stevens Paine. She now gave her occupation as that of dressmaker and milliner. Sarah Griffin of Tring married Mr Charles Grace of Tring at the New-mill Baptist Chapel on 9^th June 1866. Sarah was now 37 years old, had had probably become accustomed to life as a spinster. Her marriage to Charles Grace, who was a widower, gave her an instant family as Charles already had seven children:

Charles Sebastian born in Tring in 1849

William Horwood born in 1850 in Tring

Letitia born in 1852 in Tring

Gilbert born in Tring in 1854

Henry Edward born in Tring in 1856

Fanny Elizabeth born in Tring in 1858

Sarah Ann born in Tring in 1861

 Charles Grace had set-up his business in Akeman Street, which is probably where Sarah had her only child, Amelia Eliza, who was born on 24^th July 1870. In 1871 Charles Grace was employing 2 men and 2 sons at his premises in Akeman Street. On the 6^th February 1875 The Bucks Herald reported as follows:

TRING

SUDDEN DEATH – An inquest was held at the Royal Oak Inn, on Wednesday last, to inquire into the circumstances attending the death of Mr Charles Grace, whitesmith and ironmonger of this town. After hearing the evidence, the jury recorded as their verdict that the cause of death was apoplexy, brought on by the rupture of a blood vessel on the brain. The deceased was 52 years of age.

 Charles appears to have left no will, so “Administration of the effects of Chrles Grace late of Tring in the County of Hertford, Whitesmith” was granted to Sarah on 19^th April 1875. The business in Akeman Street appears to have been taken over by Charles’ third son Gilbert Grace, as Sarah’s eldest stepson, Charles, had moved to Aylesbury, with his brother William moving to Harrow.

After her husband’s death, Sarah moved to Langdon Street in Tring, where she was living in 1881 with her daughter, Amelia and youngest step-children.

In 1891 Sarah was back in Akeman Street, living only with her daughter, Amelia, and a lodger, who probably helped supplement her income. Amelia stated that she was attending a training college. She was in fact training to be a teacher, and it would seem likely that her teaching job was that reason that Sarah and Amelia were living in Atheldene Road, Wandsworth in Surrey at the time of the 1901 census. At the time of the census they had a visitor, Hubert Clarke, who was also a teacher. A few months later on 26^th October 1901 The Bucks Herald reported on a wedding a follows:

“The marriage of Miss Amelia Eliza Grace with Mr Hubert Edward Clarke took place on Saturday in Bunyan Chapel, Henley-on-Thames. Miss Grace will be better known as Miss Minne Grace, youngest daughter of the late Mr Charles Grace, of Akeman Street. The Rev Charles Pearce, of Tring, conducted the service. Most of the arrangements were made by Mr W. Grace, of Surbiton, and the breakfast was served in his beautiful home. The presents from the large circle of friends who wished to show their affection to Miss Grace were many and valuable. Her father, one of the most respected tradesmen in Tring, died when she was very young. For a time she attended the Misses’ Glover School, and then became a pupil teacher at Wingrave, leaving there for the Training College at Saffron Walden, where she took first rank amongst the students. She requested to take a school at Taunton, which had been considerably run down, and after a few years it had risen to honours, and she was very happy in her work. At this time, a tutor being needed for the Westminster Training College, London, an interview was sought, with the result that Taunton was left for London. Dr. Rigg and Dr. Waller, with the rest of the staff, said that of course a Wesleyan would have been preferred, but Miss Grace’s qualification was far above any who applied. Her work there was again most successful, and a letter which she has received from the Venerable Doctors and the staff of officers, with a present, are tokens of affection that anyone might be well proud to possess. Mr Clarke was a tutor at Westminster. The happy couple have now charge of a school at Gravesend.”

 In 1902 Sarah’s only grandchild, Enid Clarke was born on 8^th September in Gravesend.

In 1908 Hubert and Amelia Clarke moved to Purley, Surrey, when Hubert became the headmaster of the Reedham Orphanage. Sarah moved to Purley, living with her daughter and son-in-law and seems to have never lived in Berkhamsted.

On 6^th July 1912 Sarah died at 31 Charles Street, Berkhamsted, at the age of 83. She was certified as dying of mitral disease of the heart and an embolism of the femoral artery. Her daughter Amelia was present at her death. One week later The Bucks Herald reported upon her death:

The death of Mrs. Charles Grace, at the age of 84, at the residence of her niece, Mrs. Capp, Charles Street, Berkhamsted, removes one who spent a great part of her life in Tring, and who was connected with one of the best-known families in the town. Deceased was the second wife of the late Mr. Charles Grace, and stepmother to Mr. Gilbert Grace. The internment took place at Berkhamsted Cemetery on Tuesday, and was conducted by the Rev C. Pearce, of Tring, an old friend of the deceased. A short service was held before ethe coffin was removed from the house, and a public service later at the Congregational Church. The mourners were Mr. Gilbert Grace (Tring), Mr. William Grace, and Mr. Harry Grace, Mrs. Woodcock, Miss Annie Grace (Tring), Mr. William Rickett, Mr. Capp and the Misses Capp. A number of beautiful wreaths were placed on the grave.

 Sarah’s niece, whose home she died at was Amelia Capp, nee Griffin, the daughter of Sarah’s brother, George Griffin, baker of Wingrave. Amelia had married John Capp on 22^nd June 1871 at Wingrave Chapel.