E3.12

Richard and Hannah Dean nee Gurley The splendid headstone to Richard Dean and his wife is something of a surprise, given that Richard spent his life as a humble agricultural labourer. He was born in Weston under Wetherley in early 1797 or before, as his baptism was there on 12 February that year. His parents were William and Joan/Jane Dean. Two more siblings are known. Richard married Hannah Gurley on 11 July 1823 at Hatton and the couple came to live in Stoneleigh sometime between then and the 1841 census, when they lived in Stoneleigh village. At the time of the 1851 Hannah was visiting a family in Middle Claydon, Buckinghamshire, which may have been a cousin; her sister and nephew were also there. Richard, meanwhile, was in Stareton. By 1861 their address was technically Ashow as they lived at one of the Grecian Lodges at the entrance to Stoneleigh Abbey. At that time a great niece, Mary Ann Poole, grand daughter of Hannah's sister, Elizabeth Paxton, was with them. They continued to live at the same address until Richard's death on 5 April 1876. He was buried on 9 April. Hannah Gurley grew up in the Dassett Hills: she was born towards the end of the 18th century (see below) and baptised on 16 April 1797 at Burton Dassett, one of the five children of Joseph and Ann Gurley. When she married Richard Dean in 1823 at Hatton, they both signed their names with a cross. Her only brother John was a witness as was her sister Elizabeth Paxton. Five years after Richard's death, in 1881, Hannah lived in Stoneleigh's almshouses, where the census enumerator wrote that she was very deaf. She had been there since 1878, according to charity records. She died on 1 February 1885 and was buried on 4 February. Her age is given on the headstone as 93, which would make her year of birth 1792. In the burial register her age is given as 94, and her surname as Deane. Baptism and census records tend to suggest that she was actually 88! As no children of the marriage have been recorded it is not known who covered the expense of the gravestone. Her nephew Richard Paxton, the son of her sister Elizabeth, was, however, innkeeper of the Malt Shovel Inn in Kenilworth, and might have been responsible for it. Beneath Richard's details inscribed: and beneath Hannah's details: