Mary Clark nee Hardin and her son Henry.
Mary Hardin's parentage is unknown; by her age given on the tombstone she was born in 1728, presumably in the north of the county. She had married John Camel on 3 November 1747 at Over Whitacre, but he died two years later, in 1749. An inventory of his goods reveals that he was quite a well-off milliner, and she swore an oath that she was his sole legatee, he having declared some hours before his death that she should be so. He had evidently been married before, as he had two children, who would inherit after Mary's death.
Still only 21, she married
Thomas Clark on 20 August 1750, at Over Whitacre. Their daughter Mary was born in 1768 and their son
Henry in 1770. It seems likely that other children might have been born in the first eighteen years of their marriage.
Daughter Mary had been baptised at Arley, but son Henry was baptised at Stoneleigh on 5 January 1770. Sadly he survived to be only ten months old at his death in November that year. He was buried on 14 November. Another member of the family, Frances Clark, perhaps his aunt, was buried four days later, on 18 November. She had lived at the same address, Stivichall Grange.
Henry is commemorated on the same stone as his mother, who died on 3 February 1774 and was buried on 6 February.
