D22.16

Jane Anne Gray Jane Anne Gray was born in Bockleton, Worcestershire, in 1821 and baptised there on 12 August. She was the fifth of the eight children of Charles Gray and his wife Elizabeth Priscilla nee Edey. Charles became the Stoneleigh schoolmaster in Spring 1848. He had previously been schoolmaster in Shustoke; he was there in 1839 at the time of his wife Elizabeth's death. By 1841 he had moved to be schoolmaster in Whalley, Lancashire, helped now by his daughter Rose. Two of Jane Anne's other siblings are there also, but no trace of her whereabouts in 1841 can be found. However, when Charles arrived in 1848 in Stoneleigh it was to be assisted by Jane Anne. Perhaps Jane was of delicate health, however, because she was to die at the tender age of 27 on 22 October that same year; she was buried on 27 October, with the touching epitaph on her gravestone, "Alas, my daughter". The headstone also reads:

But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength

. Charles continued to be schoolmaster in Stoneleigh for a while, as in the 1851 census he was assisted by his 21 year old daughter Esther Priscilla. He was paid £12.10s a quarter. Esther later married James Johnson, a surveyor and clerk of works, and they brought up a large family. Her son Gilbert Edwin Johnson is commemorated at D 22.15. Charles had moved on from Stoneleigh before 1861.