The family vault of George Septimus Phillips
George Septimus Phillips, born in 1830 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church Coventry on 24 April, was the seventh son of
Edward Phillips and
Catherine nee Sammons (
D 14.5) His father Edward had been a prominent member of society in Coventry, and a considerable landowner.
George's brothers were also to "do well": his brother Edward junior became a noted Coventry physician; another brother, William, pursued his father's profession of land surveying, whilst Frederick Joseph became a ribbon manufacturer in Derby. Thomas Rotherham Phillips farmed at Mount Nod, marrying Ann Twycross from a Stoneleigh farming family.
George himself became a Coventry chemist and druggist. He married, first, Sarah Tann Wells, the daughter of a farmer, on 15 August 1857. They had three children before Sarah died on 15 November 1863. George was left with a young family all under the age of six. On 24 May 1866 he married again; his new wife was
Elizabeth Lamb, the daughter of engineer Francis Lamb and his wife Ann (nee Simpson). George was now described as an Earl Street chemist - he was living in central Coventry, in other words. He and Elizabeth went on to have three sons.
George died on 20 November 1886, and was buried at Stoneleigh on 24 November. Elizabeth, thirteen years his junior, lived until 1899. She had continued to live in Coventry but her death took place in Manchester; she was buried in the family vault at Stoneleigh on 6 July 1899.
