James Walton, Lucy Ann Walton nee Freeman, Jane, Alice and Leonard Walton
Many members of the Walton family are buried at Stoneleigh. Sadly, commemorated along with their parents in this grave, are three of the infant children of
James and Lucy Walton.
James was the second son of Edward Walton and his wife Sarah nee Clements, from Ashow. Edward was a carpenter and this trade was continued through the next two generations of sons. James was born in 1832 and baptised at Ashow on 17 June. Three more siblings were to follow.
By the age of 19 James was working as an apprentice carpenter at Stoneleigh Abbey; he was to go on in later years to be the estate carpenter and builder, employing three men and three boys - a substantial business. When marriage banns were read in 1861 for James and his wife-to-be Lucy Ann Freeman, of Harborne, James was noted to be a widower, but no earlier marriage documentation has come to light. The couple were married at King's Norton.
James and Lucy had nine children, and had moved from Ashow to Stoneleigh by the time of the birth of their daughter Harriet in 1875. James died on 18 April 1904 and was buried at Stoneleigh on 21 April.
Lucy Ann Freeman was one of the eight children of Thomas and Martha Freeman nee Harris. She was born in Harborne (though in some later censuses she gives her place of birth as Edgbaston), and baptised there on 19 March 1837. Her parents, however, married at Ashow in 1844, having already had four children together. Her father, born in Kenilworth, worked in the button trade.
After her husband's death in 1904, in the 1911 census Lucy Ann was with her son Francis "Frank" Walton, his wife Selina and four of her grandchildren. She died on 27 February 1913 and was buried on 3 March.
Their three children who died in infancy were
Jane, Alice and
Leonard Walton.
Jane, the first girl of the family, was born in late 1864 and baptised at Ashow on 11 December. When she died the Ashow burial register of 19 February 1866 gave her age as 1 year and 4 months. She is simply commemorated at Stoneleigh.
Alice was born on 9 June 1869 and baptised at Ashow on 15 June. She survived just eleven days and was buried on 20 June at Ashow - like her sister she is simply commemorated at Stoneleigh.
Leonard, the youngest child, was born in the first quarter of 1881 and baptised at Stoneleigh on 17 April. He died on 1 October 1882 and was buried on 5 October.
Five of James and Lucy's other children are commemorated at Stoneleigh:
Francis George Walton B 1.18,
Thomas Edward Walton B 2. 3,
Arthur John Walton C 1. 9, and
Clara Eunice Walton (later Wells) C 5.10.