Sidney Alfred Parsons and his Ancestors

Ann Jukes (1785 to 1858)

Ann Jukes was the wife of Charles Parsons of Marston Magna and the mother of Edward Jukes Parsons who was the paternal grandfather of Sidney Parsons.

Ann’s parents were Giles Jukes and Elizabeth Jukes (née Hill). They lived in Bourton, a small hamlet which is in north Dorset close to the border with Wiltshire and Somerset. It is about three miles north west of Gillingham which is the nearest town. Wincanton in Somerset is only about four miles to the south west and Mere in Wiltshire a similar distance to the north east. Bourton is now a parish in its own right, the most northerly in Dorset, but when Anne lived there it was regarded as a part of Gillingham. It was not until 1813, after Anne had moved away, that a church was built. Silton, which adjoins Bourton to its south, did have a parish church and some of Anne’s family had been christened, married or buried there rather than in Gillingham.

The book “An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset”, published by HMSO in 1972, described Bourton as follows:
“Although in Dorset, the parish lies in the area of the Wiltshire and Somerset textile industry, and the manufacture of linen was already flourishing early in the 18th century. Yarn was imported from Holland to supplement flax, locally grown and spun, and by the end of the 18th century weaving was the main occupation of the community; in 1811 three-quarters of the population was so engaged. At first the work was done on hand-looms in the scattered cottages; the first mill was established in 1720 and other mills were built early in the 19th century, some of them drawing power from the River Stour.”

Anne’s parents, Giles and Elizabeth Jukes, had at least ten children. Those who have been definitely identified are shown below:



Ann was one of the younger children and she was born in about 1807. Their first, who was called John, was baptised in Silton in December 1772 just four months after his parents had married. Sadly, he died less than a year later. Two more of Anne’s brothers died in childhood; they were both called William.

Ann’s father died when she was about twelve years old and some time after then she moved to Hatherleigh Farm where she lived with Richard Jukes, who was either her elder brother or a cousin, and his wife Elizabeth. Hatherleigh is about a mile to the south west of Wincanton. When Ann lived there it formed a detached part of the parish of Maperton but it is now a part of the parish of Holton. Richard’s farm was the one of the largest in Hatherleigh; the largest was owned by Richard Rowden who later married Richard’s daughter Elizabeth. Years later Hatherleigh Farm would become the home of Ann’s son Charles Parsons and his wife Harriet.



On Christmas eve in 1807, when Ann was twenty, she married Charles Parsons. Charles was a son of a wealthy farmer and inn-keeper who lived in Holton only a mile or so from Ann’s home. The marriage was held Ann’s parish church in Maperton.

John Weston Peters, a witness to their wedding, was a very wealthy friend of the Parsons family who worked for Lord Portman. The other witness was either Ann’s widowed mother Elizabeth or Richard Jukes’ wife who was also called Elizabeth.

This marriage entry in the parish register is unusually large and carefully laid out which makes it clear that the Parsons and Jukes families were of some standing in the community.

At first Charles and Ann lived in Hatherleigh but they moved several times in the early years of their marriage. They lived in Holwell and Nether Compton before settling down in Marston Magna where they remained for the rest of their lives. Edward, their first child, who was baptised in Wincanton in January 1809, was born in Hatherleigh. Edward’s son John became the father of Sidney Parsons and a great-grandfather of the present author.

In 1812 several newspapers reported that Richard Jukes, with whom Ann had lived in Hatherleigh, had been killed by a bull.

Charles was the wealthiest farmer in the village. He was a Churchwarden, Overseer of the Poor, and Surveyor of the Highways. He lived with his family in the manor house (pictured on the right). He also owned a slaughtehouse and two shops in the village.


Charles died on the 28th of August 1846. For some years Ann continued to live in the manor house with several of her children but after her daughter Elizabeth married Ann went to live with her and her husband, William Naish, at their farm in Yatton which is near Bristol. She died there on the 21st of December in the year 1858 after suffering a fall in which she broke her thigh.

At the time of writing, Charles and Ann’s memorial stone was still standing in the church yard of St. Mary’s in Marston Magna. The inscription reads:

 
“Sacred to the memory of Charles Parsons who Died August 29 1846 aged 59 years
Also of William his son who Died April ..... aged 17 years
Also of Ann widow of the above Charles Parsons who Died December 21 1858 aged 73 years”
 

Children of Charles Parsons and his wife Anne (née Jukes)



Ann and Charles’ children and their spouses are shown in the chart to the left. Two of the boys, Edward and Richard, were given Ann’s maiden name Jukes as their middle names.

Edward, born 1809, was the father of John Parsons, the Southampton publican who was Sidney Parsons’  father.

More information about Ann and Charles’ children, can be found at the following web page — Charles Parsons and Ann Jukes’ Children.

Ancestors of Ann Jukes

Ann’s parents, Giles Jukes and Elizabeth Hill, were married in the parish church of Gillingham in Dorset on the 6th of August 1772. The entry in the register can be seen below:




Anne’s father Giles and his father, who was also called Giles, had both lived in the adjoining villages of Bourton and Silton. Her mother’s family, though, had come from Mere, which is about two miles east of Bourton. Mere, a small town in Wiltshire had, like Bourton, been a centre of the linen weaving industry for several centuries, and flax, from which linen was made, was an important local crop.

The following chart shows those ancestors of Ann Jukes who have so far been identified.


Parents
Father — Giles Jukes was baptised in Silton in 1752 and buried there in March 1797.
Mother — Elizabeth Hill was born in Mere in 1755 and married Giles in August 1772. She outlived her husband by 25 years and was buried in Gillingham in December 1822.

Grandparents
Grandfather — Giles Jukes married his wife Mary in Silton in April 1747. He died in 1787.
Grandmother — Mary Forward was living in Wincanton at the time of her marriage. She and Giles had four children.

Grandfather — James Hill was baptised in Mere on the 3rd of May 1723 and buried there on the 25th of May 1798.
Grandmother — Mary Hannah Grey married James Hill on the 26th of November 1752.

Great-grandparents
Great-grandfather — Harry Hill was baptised in Mere on the 4th of May 1694. His six children, including James, were baptised in Mere between 1717 and 1728. His wife’s name was not recorded.

Great-great-grandparents (not on the chart above)
Great-great-grandfather — Harry Hill, the father of the Harry Hill shown on the chart, also lived in Mere. He must have been born around the time of the great fire of 1670 which destroyed much of the town. Many of the old buildings in Mere today date from the period of re-building which followed.



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You are free to make use of the information in these web pages in any way that you wish but please be aware that the author, Mike Parsons, is unable to accept respsonsibility for any errors or omissions.

Mike can be contacted at parsonspublic@gmail.com

The information in these web pages comes from a number of sources including: Hampshire County Records Office, Somerset Heritage Centre; Dorset County Records Office; Southampton City Archives; the General Register Office; several on-line newspaper archives; several on-line transcriptions of Parish Register Entries; and several on-line indexes of births, marriages and deaths. The research has also been guided at times by the published work of others, both on-line and in the form of printed books, and by information from personal correspondence with other researchers, for all of which thanks are given. However, all of the information in these web pages has been independently verified by the author from original sources, facimile copies, or, in the case of a few parish register entries, transcriptions published by on-line genealogy sites. The author is aware that some other researchers have in some cases drawn different conclusions and have published information which is at variance from that shown in these web pages.