Reconstructing the Face of a Man 700 Years After His Death

A reconstruction project in Cambridge England has brought to light the face of a man who died and was buried in a medieval cemetery. The cemetery was attached to a hospital and independent charitable foundation for poor and infirm residents between 1200 and 1500.

From the website we learn that "The 13th-century man, known as Context 958 by researchers, was among hundreds whose remains were found in a graveyard under what is now the Old Divinity School of St John’s College."

Archaeologists found 400 largely complete skeletons and the partial remains of about 600 more.

Read more at Face of Cambridge man brought to life 700 years after his death

A Lost Village of Freed Slaves

In the late 1800s a small village of freed slaves began on the outskirts of Cambridge Massachusetts. Not much is known of this community which apparently was called Lewisville. The authors of a new book on the history and settlement of Cambridge discovered records of the village accidentally when studying an 1870 map.

Typical slave cabin

According to the authors, Lewisville was an "African-American settlement that dispersed before the Civil War, where many members went to Africa in the African immigration movement. But it really disappeared in the 1880s."

Read more at In tracing Cambridge history, researchers uncover lost village of freed slaves

Because I was curious about who had lived there, I searched the 1870 census and found 201 black individuals listed as living in Ward 2 of Cambridge. I cannot say with certainty that these were families in Lewisville but I plan on doing more research to see what I can find out.

The Summer 2013 Newsletter of the Cambridge Historical Society has this small excerpt which may provide some clues as to the origin of the community's name:

Just east of Observatory Hill was a free, self-sufficient African American community, known as Lewisville, from the beginning of the 19th century. This settlement was roughly between Concord Avenue, Garden Street, and Shepard Street. Some of the residents were the descendants of slaves of the Vassall family, and by the middle of the 19th century, some had become political. In the early 1850s, Adam Lewis joined the abolitionist colony at Dawn, Ontario, and in 1858 Enoch Lewis led a group of 23 members of the Cambridge Liberian Emigrant Association to settle in St. Paul’s River in Liberia.

In 1850 and 1855 he is found in Ward 1 with other black famiies.

The Dawn Settlement, founded in 1841, was a rural community where Blacks could pool their labour, resources and skills to help each other and incoming settlers. It contained farm land, a saw mill, gristmill, brick yard, rope manufactory and school.  Adam Lewis, age 31, is found in this settlement in the 1851 census of Upper Canada (present day Ontario) with his wife Mary and 6 year old daughter Frances.

 

Adam's death certificate of 1900 indicates his place of birth as Missouri and it is possible that more information could be found if anyone were interested.

16th Century Plague Graffiti Found on Walls of Church

This fascinating yet sad story begins with 

"Heartbreaking" graffiti uncovered in a Cambridgeshire church has revealed how three sisters from one family died in a plague outbreak in 1515. The names Cateryn, Jane and Amee Maddyngley and the date were inscribed on stonework in Kingston parish church." (BBC News)

Continue reading this story and see the photos of the graffiti at Cambridgeshire church plague graffiti reveals 'heartbreaking' find

Silverplated Victorian Coffee Tankard with Genealogy

Yet another Genealogy related item I found in an antique store (this one I bought to add to my collection of Victorian Coffee Tankards) had this engraved faintly under the spout:

Presented to
A. M. Hilborn
By the
Blair Scholars
16 April 1887

The tankard was made in Toronto (Ontario Canada). I did a little checking and although I could not find A. M. Hilborn easily, Blair was a town in what is now Cambridge Ontario (Waterloo County) and Hilborn was a common name there.

As well, I think this may have been presented to a teacher by her students in a Blair School, but that's only a guess. I don't think an ornate coffee tankard would have been given to a man. I hope A. M. Hilborn's descendants see this and contact me to fill me in on details of his or her life.