ROBERT CADE, was the second child of Robert Cade and Fanny Walker, who were married in 1816; he was born on 7th June 1820, while his family still lived in London he became a watch and clock maker – some of his clocks are still in existence today.
With the development of photography, however, he turned to this emerging profession and some of his sons followed him in the business.
He married Maria Underwood in 1842 and they had eight children, though only seven survived to adulthood.
Their youngest child was Edwin Arthur Cade (1857-1903)
Cade Ancestry
JOHN – Wheelwright and Freeman
John is the first certain ancestor traced in the family.
The great Admissions volume of the Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights, one of the livery companies of the City of London, records that, on 2nd June 1787, in the presence of Mr Friend Ward, at the Guildhall, John Cade was admitted and sworn a Freeman of the Company, by redemption. This volume has been inspected by the writer at the Guildhall Library.
There were three paths to Freedom of the City livery companies:
- PATRIMONY: by following a father as a freeman
- SERVITUDE: by serving an apprenticeship
- REDEMPTION: which involved purchase and appears to entitle the donor to participation in the charitable and social activities of the Company. It is presumed that, as a precursor to this act would have been the attainment of an acceptable financial and social status. This did not, of course, involve one actually having to be a wheelwright.
Unfortunately, the Wheelwright’s Company, not having a Hall of its own in the City, has very few records and, therefore, nothing about John Cade’s life can be traced by this means.
As a consequence of his admission to the Company, John Cade, Wheelwright was, on the 27th June in the 27th year of the reign of King George III (namely, 1787) admitted to the Freedom of the City of London in the Mayoralty of Thomas Sainsbury Esq and John Wilkes, Chamberlain.
John Wilkes, City Chamberlain, was the prominent politician famously arrested for a libel on King George III in ‘North Briton No 45’; this was followed by a turbulent career of multiple elections to the House of Commons – and twice being expelled from the House.
On a date, not known, John Cade married Elizabeth – and the place and her family are similarly unknown.
Their only child, so far as is known, was Robert, who was born on the 16th May, 1794 and baptised at St Botolph, Bishopsgate, on 22nd June. This is evidenced by a certified extract from the Registers obtained on 25th May, 1819, the significance of which is discussed in the account of Robert himself.
There are other baptisms in the City of London IGI lists to a John and Elizabeth Cade, but in different churches and with no circumstances supporting the candidates as being siblings of Robert.
At this point, John disappears from the record. So his death could have taken place at any time from 1795 onwards. His Will, if it could be found, would be interesting in indicating his occupation and any reference to other children.
ROBERT I (1794 – 1864), printer, parish clerk and schoolmaster
In a ‘sheep’ bound Psalter, acting as a family bible, Robert (the earliest name therein) is recorded as having been born in 1795. However, the surviving certificate confirms that he was born on 16th May 1794 and baptised on the following 22nd June at St Botolph’s church in Bishopsgate in the City of London.
It is interesting that the above certificate was provided on 25th May 1820, so the question immediately arises – why? And as quickly a solution offers itself! There must be little doubt but that it was necessary to confirm his age for the purpose of his father entering into a contract, an Indenture of Apprenticeship, for his son into his chosen profession – that of a printer. He would then have been just sixteen. There is a record of many such Indentures held at the Society of Genealogists that may yet give us more information, and there must also be the Stationers & Newspaper Makers’ Livery Company. There is a mysterious writing across the right hand end of the certificate: 25th September 1810 (or is it 1820) and underneath that is what may be a signature followed by what might be either the word ‘free’ or ‘£200’. Only information about the Indenture itself may solve that.
He was married, on 8th December 1816, at St Luke’s Church, Old Street, Finsbury, London, to Fanny Walker who, according to the Census of 1841, was born in Brighton, Sussex, though this is as yet unconfirmed.
Their earliest recorded child was Elizabeth Frances, who was baptised at City Road Wesleyan Chapel, Finsbury, on 20th June 1818. Nothing more is heard of her, so perhaps she died in infancy, which would be before the Registrar General’s registers commenced in 1837.
Robert (II) was born in Finsbury on 7th June 1820, but not baptised until 10th November 1822, back at St Luke’s following what seems to have been an early, but short, period of dissent from the Church of England.
The next child was Frances (perhaps confirming the death of Elizabeth Frances), born 7th August 1822 and baptised, with Robert, at St Luke’s on 10th November 1822. But nothing further is heard of her, either.
Emma followed and was baptised there on 26th June 1825.
Two further children were born: Maria about 1830 and William, later noticed as an apprentice compositor, following his father’s trade, who was baptised at St Clements, Ipswich on 1st August 1832 by the Reverend CH Torlesse, Officiating Minister.
This occasion, in 1832, is the first record of the family’s presence in Ipswich, then being resident in Woodbridge Road.
So, by this date there had been six children, four of whom are known to have survived.
In 1822, at the time of the baptism of Robert and Frances, Robert Cade is a printer and they live in Hill Street (presumable in St Luke’s parish). However, in 1825, when Emma is baptised, they were resident in Union Street. He is still described as a printer in 1842, when son Robert marries, but by then things had begun to change.
On 31st Mary, 1834, Robert was appointed to be Clerk of the Parish of St Clement, Ipswich, by the rector, the Reverend John Thomas Nottidge. This is confirmed by the survival of the fragment of laid paper on which the rector has written. The date, however, is in another hand.
So, clearly, although he was living in Ipswich from at least 1832, he was still for a while also a printer, because the church task was not a full time one and not did it produce a living income (pay averaged £15 per annum).
By 1844, White’s Directory of Suffolk lists him as a schoolmaster. The entry under ‘St Clements Schools’ is corrupt, reading ‘Rt Nottidge Cade’ being clearly an amalgam of names of the rector and his clerk.
In the Poll Book for 1852, he is a schoolmaster in Fore Street and votes for the two Conservative candidates, J Chevalier Cobbold, Esq and Samuel Bateson, Esq, the former of whom was elected, together with one of the Liberal candidates.
In White’s County Directory for 1855, he has an ‘academy’ in Church Street (?) at which he takes boarders as well as being parish clerk.
The Poll Book for 1857 shows him voting for Cobbold and HJ Selwin Esq, the Conservatives, but the same two were elected as before in 1852.
In 1859, exactly the same performance is repeated on 30th April but, on 7th May in the same year, there appears to have been another election, but this is almost certainly a misunderstanding.
His wife, Fanny, died on 14th July 1860, aged 64, and was buried in the town cemetery, by the Reverend W W Woodhouse, rector.
The final entry is in the 1864 edition of Harrod’s Postal Directory, where he appears still as clerk, living at 24 Church Street.
On 19th September in the same year, the seventy year old parish clerk and (probably retired) schoolmaster, died of asthma at his home in 24 Church Street. Four days later, Elizabeth Glading, of Rope Walk, Ipswich, who was present at his death, makes her mark against the Registrar’s entry.
He was buried in the same grave with his wife, where many other members of the family are commemorated and, probably, buried also.
ROBERT CADE
ROBERT II (1829 – 1879) watch and clockmaker and photographer
The psalter family list, commencing with his father, shows Robert II to have been born on 7th June 1820, but the place is not given. As this was before civil registration began in 1837, there is probably no chance of ever knowing, but there is no reason to doubt that it was in the parish of St Luke, Old Street, Finsbury, north of the City of London. Old Street is the section of a main east/west road between Clerkenwell Road to the west and Hackney Road to the east and about ¾ mile due north of Cheapside.
While living at Hill Street, St Luke’s, he was baptised in St Luke’s church on 10th November, 1822.
As to where they took place, his schooling and apprenticeship remain a mystery,. The former is likely to have been very local, and the latter to have commenced in about 1834, when he was fourteen, and to have lasted for seven years. There is no known family connection with the craft of watchmaking. There was a firm of Cade & Robinson at 153 Leadenhall Street, EC3 in 1825, but there is no apparent family connection with it.
However, Robert didn’t marry until some years later, being constrained to delay until he had completed his apprenticeship. He gave a gold engagement ring to Maria, then a minor, the daughter of Jeremiah Underwood, butcher, of the parish of St Botolph without Aldersgate (not to be confused with St Botolph without Bishopsgate) in the parish church of which they were married, by licence, on 4th January 1842.
It appears to have been a church of little note, at the corner of Little Britain, ‘but for its neat bell turret and pretty, fizzing, fountain singularly resembling a meeting house’. The service was performed by the Reverend T H Woodruffe, in the presence of Joseph West and Esther West, relatives of the bride. The implication of this is that Robert’s marriage was not favoured by his own family, but the distance from Ipswich may have been the cause. At this time, Robert II was resident in the neighbouring parish of St Giles without Cripplegate.
Seven and a half months later, on 16th July, at 2pm (unusually recorded by the Registrar General) at 8 Regent Street, in the parish of St John the Evangelist, Westminster, Robert Henry was born. This Regent Street was not the celebrated and grand street of that name today. It was what is now known as Regency Street, and connects Horseferry Road to Vauxhall Bridge Road, south of Victoria Street. No 8 was on the west side of the north end, almost facing Page Street.
Robert Henry’s birth certificate is held and so his registered name is clear. However, the psalter already referred to, calls him Robert Arnum Cade, and his baptism is St Botolph’s Aldersgate confirms this, and not the original name.
It appears that Robert Arnum Cade survived, married and had one son; he died in America. There are also details of two sons and a daughter born in America.
By the birth of Alfred Henry, on 17th November, 1845, the family had come together again and Robert II had moved to Ipswich. Alfred Henry married and has many descendants.
From this date until the Directory of 1855, they continued at Fore Street. But, unaccountably, in 1844 Robert is shown at Borough Road, which doesn’t appear on modern maps.
William Walker Cade was born on 30th March 1845, and given as second name the surname of his maternal grandmother. He was baptised at St Clements church, where his grandfather was parish clerk, on 7th May 1845. He did not marry. As a victualler, aged 26, he died on 7th July 1882 at Warwick Road of phthisis (tuberculosis). The informant to the Registrar was brother, Alfred Henry, then of Cowper Street. Both these addresses are on the eastern outskirts of the town.
Clara Maria was born 28th June 1847, and baptised at St Clements on 25th April 1850, an older child for the ceremony than had been the family practice. She married John White and had many descendants.
In the 1851 Census on 6th April, Robert II, like his father, was an enumerator. When examining these returns in the famous Round Room at the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane, the original sheets were handled and the signatures of the father and son were found.
Ellen Jane, known as ‘Nell’ was born on 20th March 1852. She married (Benjamin) Hillier Antill and had four children.
Charles Walter was born on 27th May 1854. He married Clementine and had nine children and many further descendants.
His last child was Edwin Arthur, born 26th July 1856 at 10 Orwell Place, Ipswich.
By 1874, Robert had removed to 4 Westgate Street.
In 1879, he travelled to London, for a purpose unknown, and stayed at 3 Beaumont Street, Marylebone. This street runs from the top of Marylebone High Street, crosses Devonshire Street and runs to Weymouth Street. It appears at about this time to have been an area of lodging houses. He may have come to seek medical help in the Harley Street area.
He died here, on 22nd October 1979, aged 59, of ‘sarcoma of thyroid gland debilitas’, with his youngest child, Edwin Arthur (then of Cornhill, Ipswich) in attendance, and who registered the death the next day.
An unidentified newspaper, records the funeral: ‘The remains of the late Mr Robert Cade, of Westgate Street, were interred on Monday afternoon at the cemetery amidst general signs of respect and affection, not only on the part of his Masonic brethren but of others of his fellow townsmen. The deceased gentleman was a Past Master and most highly respected member of Luke’s Lodge, and there was a good number of the brethren of that lodge present. The funeral was fixed for half past two, and, shortly before that hour, the members of the craft assembled at the Public Hall, and marched from there to the deceased’s residence, and headed the procession. The officers present were the Worshipful Master of the Lodge, immediate and other Past Masters and about 30 members of the lodge.’
The mourners followed in the under-mentioned order:
1st carriage: Mr Cade, Mr W Cade, Mr W C Cade, Mr E A Cade
2nd carriage: Mrs White, Mrs A H Cade, Miss Cade, Mrs Antill
3rd carriage: Mr White, Mr Noble, Mr Cooke, Captain Peck
4th carriage: Mr Forman, Dr W P Mills, The Rev J Brewster, Mr Lile
Shutters were put up a several of the places of business and many tradesmen of the town attended the funeral. The service was conducted by the Reverend J Brewster. Each of the Masonic brethren, on taking a last look at the coffin, which was of highly polished oak, with brass furniture. There was a brass star on the top and bottom and a plate with the inscription:
ROBERT CADE
Born June 7th 1820
Died October 22nd 1879
The funeral was carried out by Messrs Footman, Pretty and Nicholson of Waterloo House, under the management of Mr Hudd.
His Will was signed on 7th May 1870 and witnessed by Woodruffe Daniel and Lucy Daniel. His widow, Maria, of The Mount, Ringham Road, St John’s, Ipswich, son Alfred Henry, or 4 Westgate Street, Ipswich, photographer and friend, John Forman, Accountant, of 174 Woodbridge Road, Ipswich, were appointed executors.
His widow, Maria, was to have the income of the estate during her life or widowhood. The capital was, thereafter, to be divided equally between the children, bringing in to hotch-pot such sums as had already been advanced to them.
All this the lawyers were able to cram into a mere 115 lines.
The Will was proved on 15th December 1879. Personal estate ‘under £800’. Unless this amount is a figure that must be shown to have been exceeded or not have been exceeded, it indicates the actual size of the estate. Brining this amount up to 2001 values, it must be multiplied by a factor of about 48.4, to give a figure or about £38,750.
© VCRT