John and Jane Powers nee Farmer
John Powers was born on 3 March 1836 at Merevale, and baptised at nearby Mancetter on 11 August that year. His parents Thomas - a farmer at Merevale - and Susannah already had two children, and a fourth child was born in 1839. By 1851, having farmed at Whittington Farm at Grendon for more than ten years, Thomas was farming 1200 acres there, with his three eldest children being employed on the farm.
By 1861 Thomas had died and his widow Susannah was carrying on the farm with her eldest boy Thomas managing it. A hint of John's later profession is given now, however, as he is described in the census as a miller.
Four years later, on 7 June 1865 when he was 29 years old, John married
Jane Farmer at Stoneleigh.
One of the witnesses at the marriage was Richard Robbins, whose father Francis had as early as the 1830s looked after mills at Baginton, Dunchurch and Stoneleigh. He had then opened mills in Kenilworth and, in 1854, opened The City Flour Mills in the centre of Coventry. This mill, ranked as one of the finest mills in the Midlands, was then run by Richard Robbins, the founder's son, and John Powers. For some time, in fact, it was called "Robbins and Powers."
Jane Farmer was the youngest of the three daughters of Thomas Richard Farmer and his wife Mary nee Weston. Jane was born at Stoneleigh on 26 October 1840 and baptised there on 2 November. The family lived at Manor Farm.
The middle child, Mary, died in infancy, but the eldest, Mabel, married Richard Robbins - so the two partners in business married the two Farmer sisters.
(Many other members of the Weston, Farmer and Robbins families are buried at Stoneleigh: Francis Robbins and family at
B 10. 3, and the immediate Farmer family here at
D 16 1,
D 16. 2,
D 16.3 and
D 16.4. Many of the Weston family are buried at
D 6.7)
Jane died on 30 April 1914 in her 74th year.
After John's death on 1 December 1919, a newspaper obituary was published, which gave many details about his life. He had retired from business in 1897 but had been a well-respected figure in corn markets as far apart as Birmingham and Liverpool. He and Jane had had no children, but he was a trustee of Coventry Church charities, a Governor of both Bond's and Ford's Hospitals and was on the board of managers of the Coventry Industrial School for over 30 years. He was a keen golfer and gardener and attended Holy trinity church in Coventry. The article concluded by remarking on his great physical strength and his height, which at 6 feet was unusual for the time. "The passing of such a true English sportsman and gentleman as Mr John Powers is a loss not only to his family but to the community at large, for he was a representative of that fine type of Britisher which is becoming all too rare."
John and Jane had lived at "Fairhill", on Warwick Road in Stivichall, Coventry for many years before their deaths. He was buried on 4 December 1919 at Stoneleigh, the funeral ceremony being taken by Canon Littlewood, the vicar of Holy Trinity.