Eight family members are commemorated in this box tomb.
Mary Davis was the daughter of Thomas and Mary Davis and was probably born in 1754, since she was baptised on 7 January 1755 at Stoneleigh. Her parents and sister are buried alongside, at
D 1.15; the family had lived in Stareton. Mary married, on 3 December 1778,
Edward Harper.
Edward's parentage is unclear but he rose to become mayor of Coventry in 1778. By profession he was a surgeon-apothecary, and was also a magistrate and sheriff in the city of Coventry. He and Mary had one son,
Thomas, who died as an infant and is buried along with his father. An inscription to this effect is on the tomb, but no records of Thomas's birth or death have so far been found.
Edward died at the young age of 34 on 31 October 1782, and was buried at Stoneleigh on 3 November. It seems surprising that he should be buried in Stoneleigh rather than Coventry, but presumably it is because of his wife's connections. Her father Thomas had died just a month before her husband; might Edward have attended to him, and died from the same cause?
Mary remarried. Her second husband, whom she married on 23 June 1784, was a prominent Coventry silkman,
Edward Soden, who had been born in 1750. They had four children, three girls and a boy. They seem to have occupied a place in the heart of Coventry's civic and professional life, their names appearing in a variety of records. Edward died on 21 October 1825, two years after his wife, who had died on 2 December 1823.
All four of their children are commemorated here.
Mary, the eldest, was born on 6 April 1789, and baptised on 7 May, died on 15 October 1852, in Coventry. She was buried at Stoneleigh on 23 October. Her sister
Sarah, born on 3 April 1792, had died young on 24 March 1828, in Coventry, at the age of just 35. She was buried at Stoneleigh on 4 April.
The third sister,
Lucinda, - the last sibling to die -was born on 26 April 1790 and died on 10 January 1867. She was buried on 17 January and her will was proved by Samuel Vale and John Rotherham, both prominent watch manufacturers in Coventry.
Edward and Mary's only son,
James Davis Soden, who had been born on 15 May 1795, died on 2 January 1848. Sadly, although he had followed his father's profession and become a ribbon manufacturer, he had been declared bankrupt in 1836. He died intestate, leaving his two sisters to make claim to his remaining estate, which included property in Collycroft, Bedworth. This suggests that his works had been situated in one of the prime weaving areas of Warwickshire.
All of Edward and Mary's children had been baptised in the Protestant Dissenting tradition, which was not unusual for silk-weavers.
