Jane Savory was born on 30 June 1785 in Ampney Crucis, Gloucestershire, the daughter of John and Elizabeth. It is not known when she was first employed by the Leigh family, though it may have been early in the nineteenth century. Certainly by 1841 she was at Stoneleigh Abbey as a servant there, and by 1851, as housekeeper.
The dramatic events of 1844, when the abbey was attacked, led to her being rewarded by Chandos, Lord Leigh, with a "plain and massive silver teapot" with the inscription "Given by her Friend and Master, Lord Leigh, as a memorial of the firmness and good example set by her when the abbey was attacked and broken into, during the absence of the family, by a gang of 31 ruffians, on Monday October 21st 1844." This was reported in the local and national newspapers.
Evidently William Henry, Lord Leigh, held Jane in similar regard, as when she died, aged 82, on 8 September 1867 at Castle End Kenilworth, she was buried at Stoneleigh on 12 September, and he had a tombstone erected in her memory in Stoneleigh Churchyard, which speaks of "55 years of faithful and responsible service to the family". A notice of her death appeared in national newspapers as an "attached friend" of Lord Leigh.
