Created:  03 July 2012

Benjamin Sparrow was the eldest son of Mr Benjamin Sparrow (1813-1877), limestone merchant.  He took over the business at Cattedown Quarries following the death of his father in 1877.

In 1878 Benjamin and his cousin, Mr Lewis Sparrow (1854-1902), leased the 40-acre quarry from Lord Graves.

Early in 1881 Mr Benjamin Sparrow, limestone merchant, married Miss Mary Hutchings, the daughter of a tanner, at Altrincham, in Cheshire.  She originally came from Farrington, in Lancashire.

By the time of the 1881 census, he and Mary were living at Cleeve House, Ermington, Ivybridge, Devon.  They had two female domestic servants.

When the census was taken a decade later they had three sons and one daughter and three staff, a cook, a housemaid and a 23-years-old nurse, Miss Eleanor B Davey.  They also had three family visitors, Lieutenant Colonel Robert A Crawford and Mrs Elizabeth Penfound Wakeham Crawford, Benjamin’s older sister, and a cadet from HMS Britannia, 12-years-old Master John Hutchings, who hailed from Lancashire so was clearly a relative of Mary’s.

Mr Benjamin Sparrow died suddenly at Cleve House, Ermington, Ivybridge, in 1893 aged 40.  He was taken ill at breakfast while preparing to join the South Devon Foxhounds, and Doctors Randle and Selby were summoned.  They found him unconscious.  He rallied in the afternoon but soon relapsed.  During Saturday night, while attended by his brother, Mr Lewis Sparrow, of Stroode, he got worse again and Doctor Swain, of Plymouth, was sent for but to no avail and Mr Sparrow passed away at about noon.  It was thought that he never fully recovered from injuries received during a hunting accident several years earlier.

The funeral took place at Ermington Church.  He was head of Messrs Sparrow & Company, Cattedwon.  The report gave more details of both the accident and the death.  The accident had taken place 11 years previous (1882) when Mr Sparrow was taking part in a point-to-point race when his horse slipped on a stone and ‘threw him upon a boulder with great force’, as a result of which he ‘was terribly injured about the face’.  During his last night his brother, Mr Lewis Sparrow, ‘journeyed to Plymouth for Mr Paul Swain, surgeon, but before the latter arrived at the house death had ensued’.

Staff who attended the funeral were: Mr Peter Halse Evea, managing agent at the quarries; Mr W H Hendy, foreman; Mr R B wood, cashier; and Mr O Stenteford, of Messrs Fairholme & Company.  The glass hearse was supplied by Mr F Palmer, Cambridge Mews, Plymouth.

Mr Lewis Sparrow (1854-1902) then became solely responsible for the business.

It is believed that Mrs Mary Sparrow died in Plymouth in 1953.