The Summers family
The earliest burial within this grave is that of
Mary Summers nee Farmer.
Mary Farmer was the fourth born of the five children of
Richard Farmer and his wife
Margaret nee Hadley. (
D 16.2) She was born in 1792 and baptised at Stoneleigh on 4 July.
On 31 October 1815 she married
John Summers at Stoneleigh. John was a Coventry ironmonger, born in 1788, though his parentage is unknown. They went on to have four children.
Mary died aged only 36 on 12 October 1828 and was buried at Stoneleigh on 16 October. The family were living in Coventry, however, where John had his business.
The youngest child of John and Mary,
Mary Margaret Farmer Summers, is also commemorated in the tomb's inscriptions. She was born in December 1825 and baptised at St Michael's Coventry on 26 December. She was only 15 when she died, on 6 June 1841; she was buried with her mother at Stoneleigh on 10 June.
John had remarried on 19 May 1832, this time at St Michael's Coventry. His second wife was
Louisa Easter Darley. She was the daughter of James Darley and Elizabeth nee Godwin, and she was born in early 1796 in Hullavington in Wiltshire, where she was baptised on 4 April. Her father was an architect and surveyor who worked on many great English houses, and on Malmesbury Abbey.
In 1841 John and Louisa lived in High Street Coventry, but two years later John dissolved his partnership as an ironmonger with his eldest son John Farmer Summers, and their estate and effects were transferred to other Coventry businessmen, among them ribbon manufacturer and newspaper proprietor Charles Bray, friend of George Eliot. Louisa died after just a day's illness, on 15 February 1845, by which time they were living in Warwick Row, Coventry; she was buried at Stoneleigh on 21 February, newspaper obituaries commenting not only on her Coventry connection, but also noting who her father was - Mr Darley was evidently well-known in his field.
John died the following year, on 30 June 1846, and was the last to be buried in this tomb, on 4 July 1846. He had moved to Marton, and was living with his eldest son John Farmer Summers. The burial register gives his residence as "Itchington", nearby. Young John himself died in 1848 aged just 31, and was buried at Marton.
