C10.2

Ann Arnold nee Edgington and John Arnold Ann Edgington was the daughter of Edward and Ann Edgington "from Stoneley Lodge" as the baptism register of 19 March 1762 puts it. (When Edward died in 1767, he was described as "gardener to the Right Honourable Lord Leigh" and so the Lodge may have been the Gatehouse, that is, the closest of the lodges to the Abbey). Edward will probably have been head gardener and therefore of considerable importance at that time. On 28 October 1782 Ann married, at Stoneleigh, Richard Arnold, who was then a farmer in the area of Monks Kirby, though the register states that he came from the parish of St Martin's in Birmingham. Richard Arnold appears in a great many Land Tax lists as a landowner of some standing. Ann died on 14 November 1811, aged 48, at Pailton and was buried in her home parish of Stoneleigh on 20 November. John Arnold was one of the sons of Richard and Ann and was christened on 28 February 1790 at Monks Kirby, the family residing at Pailton. He died in March 1813 at the age of just 23 and was buried on 11 March at Stoneleigh, where the register notes "from Pailton". It is perhaps surprising that he should be buried outside his family area, but presumably the desire was to bury him alongside his mother. The verses at the foot of the stone are now difficult to distinguish, but in 1980 the WI managed to transcribe them thus: If this is a correct transcription then it suggests that young John had in fact been married.