John Freeman Moden
(1863-1941)

John Freeman Moden was the fourth of the six children of labourer Edward Moden and his wife Mary Ann Freeman of Coveney, Cambridgeshire, England.

When he was just 4 years old, his father died, leaving his pregnant young mother to look after the family of five (soon to be six) children.

His mother re-married to David Seymour of Green's Farm in Ely, which brought the Moden family from Coveney, into the city of Ely.

By 1885, John had married Mary Ann Meekins and the couple had a daughter in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. However, Mary Ann died in 1886, leaving the 23 year old labourer with his young daughter.

He re-married in 1889 to Sarah Jane Martin of Wardy Hill, Cambridgeshire, in a wedding in London. By 1891, they are noted on the census as living at 22 Great Earl Street, Bloomsbury in London. The couple had become parents to a daughter called Ellen, but sadly she died in 1894 at just 3 years of age.

John and Sarah went on to have five more children, and they appear on the 1901 census as living at 26 Affleck Street, Clerkenwell in London, before the family moved back to Cambridgeshire to live in the village of Witchford in 1907. They eventually returned to St John's Road, Ely by the time of the 1911 census.

Their second son John was a Lance Corporal in the First World War, with the 9th Battalion of King's Royal Rifle Corps, but was killed in France, and was buried there in June 1916.

John pre-deceased his second wife Sarah by about 9 weeks.

Life Events

Born

• 1863 at Coveney, Cambridgeshire, England.

Baptised

• 7th March 1864 at St. Peter-ad-Vincula Church, Coveney, Cambridgeshire, England.

Married

• Mary Ann Meekins (1859-1886) during 1884 in the Bury St. Edmunds district of Suffolk, England.
• Sarah Jane Martin (1863-1941) on 9th June 1889, at All Saints Church, St. Pancras, London, England.

Children

• Ethel Elizabeth Moden (1885-1961) married Frank Tamplin (1879-1934)
• Ellen Elizabeth Moden (1890-1894)
• Arthur William Moden (1892-1979) married Hannah Challis (1896-1978)
• John Henry Moden (1894-1916)
• Grace Dorothy Moden (1898-1981) married Albert Bunton (18??-?)
• Hilda Moden (1901-1973) married Robert Sindall (1900-?)
• Ada Ellen Moden (1907-2006) married Walter Chiverton (1901-1947)

Census and Residence

• 1871: 7yrs, Coveney, Cambridgeshire, England.
• 1881: 17yrs, Green's Farm, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.
• 1891: 26yrs, 22 Great Earl Street, Bloomsbury, London, England.
• 1901: 37yrs, 26 Affleck Street, Clerkenwell, London, England.
• 1907: 44yrs, Witchford, Cambridgeshire, England.
• 1911: 47yrs, St. John's Road, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.

Employment

• 1881: Farm Labourer
• 1891-1901: Brewer's Labourer
• 1907: Labourer
• 1911: Farm Labourer

Death

• 1st April 1941 at 12 St. John's Road, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, aged 77 years.

Burial

• 5th April 1941 in grave F530, next to his second wife, at Ely City Cemetery, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.