Sarah Jane Davies nee Bissell
Little is known about
Sarah Jane Davies' origins other than that she was born on 21 February 1821 in Tipton, Staffordshire, where she was baptised on 26 March, the daughter of Joseph and Ann Bissell. The next we know of her is that she was married in 1840 in Tipton to John Davies, and they continued to live in the town in 1841, where John was a surgeon.
During the next ten years they had five children, the last two being twins born at the end of 1850. Sadly both twins died, one in 1851 and one in 1852. By the time of the 1851 census John was described as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.
John must have died sometime in the 1850s as in 1861 Sarah was living in Aston, widowed, and described as a proprietor of houses; ten years later she was "living on interest of money." Clearly John's professional life had been lucrative.
Sarah's connection with Stoneleigh, however, is that by 1881 she was living with her daughter Mary Ann and her family at 1, Church Place. Mary Ann had married farm bailiff Alfred Rose, and the family's home was called The Old Vicarage when Sarah died there on 18 July 1885, aged 64. She was buried on 22 July.
An interesting footnote is that Sarah's daughter and son-in-law, Mary Ann and Alfred Rose, became joint custodians of Shakespeare's Birthplace in Henley Street, Stratford, from about 1900. At Mary Ann's death in 1921 newspapers reported on her as "a valuable scholar and an encyclopaedia of Shakespearian lore"..." known to thousands of pilgrims from all parts of the globe." Clearly Sarah Jane left an intellectual mark on Warwickshire's literary life!
