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Mrs Emily Caldecott CAVELL, née Powell (1831–1884)
Her son Frederick Percy CAVELL (1862–1882)
St Giles section: Row 13, Grave B25½

 

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Mrs Emily Caldecott Cavell was the first wife of John Elliston Cavell, the son of John Caldecott Cavell, the co-founder and eventual sole owner of Elliston & Cavell’s in Magdalen Street.

See separate grave for more information on her father-in-law.

John Elliston Cavell is not buried here with his first wife Emily and son Frederick, but is probably buried with his second wife in Lewisham.

Emily Caldecott Powell was born in Vauxhall, Surrey in 1831 and baptised at the church of St Vedast Foster Lane with St Michel le Querne on 24 April. She was the daughter of William John Powell and Sarah Caldecott. On 26 January 1860 at St Matthew’s Church, Oakley Square London she married John Elliston Cavell (born in Oxford 1838/9), the only surviving son of John Caldecott Cavell, the owner of the department store Elliston & Cavell. She was eight years his senior and is likely to have been a relation. They had two sons:

• Frederick Percy Cavell (born in Park Crescent, Oxford in 1862 and baptised at St Giles’s Church on 3 May)
• Harry St John Cavell (born in Oxford on 30 May 1864 and baptised as an adult at All Saints, Battle Bridge, Middlesex on on 11 September 1888).

John Elliston Cavell appears to have been out of the country at the time of the 1861 census, and Emily, who described herself as a draper’s wife, was visiting her family in Vauxhall. They were living in Park Town in early 1862.

At the time of the 1871 census John (32), now described as a silk merchant, was living at No. 1 Riversdale in the Woodstock Road in Oxford with his wife Emily (40) and their sons Frederick (8) and Harry (6), and two servants.

By 1881 John Elliston Cavell, still a silk merchant, continued to describe himself as married, but was living at 45 London Road in Reading with his elder son Frederick Percy Cavell (18), and a companion, Arthur H. James. They were looked after by a housekeeper and three servants. His wife Emily is hard to find: it is possible that she was in an institution. Harry may be the boy of 16 miscrecorded as Henry Cannell who was at Norfolk House School in Sutton.

Cavell’s elder son Frederick died in Reading the next year:

† Frederick Percy Cavell died in Reading in February 1882 at the age of 19 and was buried in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 13 February (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

Mrs Cavell appears to have been living in Northampton, as she died there two years later:

† Mrs Emily Caldecott Cavell died in Northampton in July 1884 at the age of 53 and was buried with her father-in-law and elder son at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 7 July (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

John Elliston Cavell was living in Blackheath in 1887 and appears to have remarried, because in 1901 when he was a retired draper of 62 he was living with his Islington-born wife Jane (59) at 78 Eltham Road, Lee, Kent with his unmarried son Harry (36), a solicitor. He died there at the age of 69 on 25 March 1908, and is not buried with his family in Oxford. His effects came to £20,995 0s. 11d.

Cavell's grandson, his only surviving descendant

On 18 June 1902 at Eltham Church in London, the solicitor Harry St John Cavell (38), the sole survivor of the Elliston & Cavell dynasty, married Mary Louisa Powell (36): he was living at The Chestnuts, Eltham Road, Lee, and she lived in Northbrook Court Road, Eltham. They do not appear to have had any children.

They were living at The Cedars in Peaches Close, Cheam with three servants in 1911.

Harry St John Cavell was living at Westdene, Burnham Avenue, Bognor Regis at the time of his death on 9 December 1940. His personal effects came to £19,474 8s. 7d.

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More about the Elliston & Cavell shop

See page about John Caldecott Cavell