Sidney Alfred Parsons and his AncestorsThe Children of Charles Parsons and Ann Jukes
Charles Parsons and his wife Ann Jukes were great-grandparents of Sidney Parsons. Their eldest son Edward Jukes Parsons was Sidney’s grandfather.
Charles and Ann lived for most of their lives in Marston Magna, a village in south west England, in the heart of the ancient Kingdom of Wessex. Less than three miles away is Cadbury Castle, said by some to be the original Camelot of King Arthur.
Marston Magna is in the south-east of Somerset near the border with Dorset. Charles’ ancestors had farmed in this area between Yeovil, Sherborne, Gillingham and Wincanton for centuries. His earliest known ancestor to bear the Parsons name was Richard Parsons who lived in Kington Magna in Dorset where he died in 1713. Charles’ parents, William Parsons and Mary West, had moved from Kington Magna to Horsington and then, in the late 1780s, to Holton where they lived for many years. Charles was born in 1787 and grew up in Holton.
Charles’ wife Ann Jukes had been born near Gillingham in 1785 but after her father died when she was about twelve years old she lived in Hatherleigh, a detached part of the parish of Maperton which adjoined Holton.
Charles Parsons married Ann Jukes in the parish church of St. Peter & St. Paul in Maperton on Christmas Eve in 1807. His father William was a wealthy man and this was reflected by the unusually large and stylish entry which the parish priest made in the register. One of the witnesses, John Weston Peters, was a very wealthy friend of the family who was associated with Lord Portman, who owned a large amount of land in the West Country and London. Charles’ brother George had married John Weston Peters’ sister Jane.
In the early years of their marriage Charles and Ann moved several times. They lived at Ridge Farm near Lydlynch a few miles west of Sturminster Newton and also at Nether Compton which is a few miles south of Marston Magna. But by the mid 1820s they had settled in Marston Magna.
The manor house in Marston Magna where Charles Parsons lived with his family is shown to the right.
Charles was a farmer and leased a considerable amount of land in the parish and probably more in surrounding parishes. He also owned a grocer’s shop, a butcher’s shop, a slaughter house, stables and piggeries.
Charles died in Marston Magna in August 1846 and was buried there in the churchyard. Ann died at her daughter Elizabeth’s home near Bristol in 1858.
Children of Charles and Ann Parsons
Charles and Ann Parsons had five sons and four daughters.
Click on one of the following to go straight to the selected person —
Edward Jukes Parsons
Charles Parsons
Richard Jukes Parsons
William Parsons
Harriet (or Henrietta) Dewdney previously Willis née Parsons
Ann Traves née Parsons
William Parsons
Uriah Parsons
Elizabeth Naish née Parsons
Mary Lewis née Parsons
Edward Jukes Parsons (1809 to 1893)
Edward Parsons, who became Sidney Parsons’ grandfather, was Charles Parsons’ eldest son but he did not inherit any of his father’s wealth. He lived in Marston Magna for all of his life working as a labourer or gardener except for a few years when he worked as a gamekeeper near Bruton, which is about nine miles away.
Edward married twice and both of his wives were called Elizabeth. His nine children, including John Parsons’ who was Sidney’ father, were all born to his first wife Elizabeth Taylor.
In his later years Edward lived with his second wife in one of the village alms houses. They are shown on the right in a
photograph which was taken shortly before they were demolished. He died there on Christmas Day in 1893.
Edward’s story may be read by clicking on the following link — Edward Parsons’ Story.
Charles Parsons (1811 to 1891)
Charles Parsons’ son Charles, born in 1811, was one of the executors of his father’s will when he died in 1846, and he was the main beneficiary, inheriting the farm. But under the terms of the will he did have to make sizeable payments to his brothers and sisters - except for Edward who had been specifically excluded.
Charles did not marry until he was 39 years old, after his father had died and he had inherited much of his estate. His bride, Harriet Perrett, was only 20 years old. She had been born in Gillingham in Dorset and their wedding was held in Mere (a small town near to Gillingham) on the 23rd of October 1850. Charles and Harriett lived in Marston Magna for nearly 20 years, and most of their children were born there, but in about 1870 they moved to Maperton, about five miles to the north east, where Charles farmed 300 acres at Hatherleigh Farm with the assistance of four men and two boys. When he left Marston Magna, Charles let out the village shops (with dwelling house, piggery, etc.) which he had inherited from his father.
About ten years after moving to Maperton Charles and Harriet moved north again to South Brewham which is about two miles east of Bruton. Here they lived for a short while at Walk Farm near the hamlet of Hardway, and then at Pillinge farm (called Pillange farm in some records) where Charles once again farmed 300 acres, this time with the assistance of just 2 men and 1 boy. Pillinge farm was only about a mile from the hilltop folly called “King Alfred’s Tower” on the Stourhead estate which would have been clearly visible from the farm.
Charles and Harriet had four sons and six daughters. Charles died at Pillange Farm in December 1891. After his death Harriet moved to Charlton Musgrove, a small hamlet near to Wincanton, where she lived with some of her children. She died in 1904 and was buried in Marston Magna near to her husband and two of their children.
The following inscription was transcribed from their tombstone at St. Mary's Church, Marston Magna:
“In loving memory of Charles Parsons Born April 19 1811, Died at Pillinge Farm December 17 1891
Also of Harriet his Daughter, Born March 12 1855, Died at Walk Farm June 29 1879
Also of Harriet his Wife, Born 5 October 1830, Died 27 March 1904
Also of Harry their Son, Born 21 January 1870, and Died 3 December 1895”
More information about Charles can be found at — Charles Parsons’ Story.
Richard Jukes Parsons (1813 to 1896)
Richard Jukes Parsons was born in 1813 in Nether Compton in Dorset where he was privately christened on 13th of July 1813. He was christened there again on the 18th of June 1814 and on that occasion he was given Jukes as his middle name. He may have been named after Richard Jukes of Hatherleigh near Maperton with whom his mother Ann had been living at the time of her marriage. Richard Jukes, who was probably a brother or cousin of Ann’s, had been killed by a bull in 1812.
Richard grew up in Marston Magna and after his father Charles died in 1846 he continued to live there for a few years with his mother. When his uncle Uriah Parsons died in 1860 Richard was named in his will as one of the executors together with his cousin Benjamin Parsons. Soon afterwards Richard took on his own small farm about two miles from Marston Magna in Sutton Montis, almost beneath the mound of the hill fort known as Cadbury Castle. By 1881 he had retired and had moved back to Marston Magna where he lived in Camel Street in a house called Northover. And then, for the first time, he married. His bride was called Emily Arthur and she was 18 years younger than him. She had been born in Charlton Mackrell in Somerset and as a young woman she had lived in London as a companion and maid to Lady Elizabeth Seaton. Richard died in January 1896 after which Emily moved to Bath and lived there with her widowed sister Ann until she died in 1921.
William Parsons (1816 to 1816)
William was also born in Nether Compton but he died soon after being born. He was buried in Holton, his father’s home village, on the 31st of March in the year 1816.
Harriet (or Henrietta) Dewdney previously Willis née Parsons (born 1819)
Charles and Ann’s first two daughters, Harriet and Ann, were twins. They were born in the parish of Stock Gaylard in Dorset and christened together on the 3rd of October 1819. Their parents were living at Ridge Farm near Lydlynch when they were born but not long afterwards they moved to Marston Magna and that is where the two girls grew up.
As an adult Harriet often used the name Henrietta; increasingly so as she grew older.
Late in the year 1838, when Harriet was about 19 years old,she married a young farmer from Marston Magna called John Willis. Their first child was a girl who was christened Jane on the 29th of February 1840. A month later both of John’s parents (John and Rachel Willis) died and just a month after that young Jane also died. She was buried on the 31st of March. One year later they had a second child whom they named William. He was baptised on the 7th April 1841.
John and Henrietta had a daughter whom they named Rachel. Two years later they had another son whom they named John. But young John died of “inflammation of the lungs” when he was less than two years old. Less than a year later Henrietta’s father died and soon after that her husband John caught pneumonia and died while she was pregnant with their fourth child. When her child was born she named him John after his father.
The Sherborne Mercury’s report of Henrietta’s husband’s death said that “he died after a very short illness, in the prime of life, sincerely and deservedly respected by all who knew him, leaving a widow and a young family to mourn their loss”.
Henrietta became the village shopkeeper and lived in the shop which her father had owned. She lived there with her children until 1857 when she married again. Her new husband was a farmer called William Dewdney and the wedding was in Bridport in Dorset. Henrietta apprenticed her son John Willis to her niece Jane’s husband, Luke Vincent, who was a smith and carpenter in a village in north Dorset. By 1861 Henrietta and William had moved to a farm in Chalmington in Dorset where they spent the rest of their lives. William died in 1875 and for some years Henrietta continued to live on the farm which was by then 400 acres. But by 1888, when she died, Henrietta was living in Beaminster in Dorset.
Henrietta’s eldest son William became a surveyor and joined the Indian civil service. He lived there for many years in Ootacamund and Madras before returning to England with his wife and children to live in Marston Magna. By 1891 he was retired and living near Helston in Cornwall.
Ann Traves née Parsons (1822 to 1886)
Anne and her twin sister Harriet were born in 1819 while their parents were living at Ridge Farm in Stock Gaylard.
Anne was still a young girl when the family moved to Marston Magna where they lived at Manor Farm. She lived with her parents, and after her father died in 1846, with her mother, until 1850 when she was over 30 years old. Then she became pregnant and married a widower called William Traves whose wife Hannah had died eight years previously. William was a farmer who lived in the centre of the village next door to his brother. He was about 26 years older than Anne and he had three children, one of whom, his daughter Mary, was only four years younger than Anne.
Anne and William’s first child was born just one month after they married. It was a boy and they gave him the name Charles Parsons Traves. For some time Anne lived with their son separately from her husband in her own house in the village while he continued to live with two of his children from his previous marriage. Within a few years the children left home and he then moved to a much smaller farm where he lived with Anne and their son Charles. In 1853 they had a second child whom they named William. Anne’s husband William died late in 1863 after which she continued to live in the village with their younger son William. Their eldest son, Charles, went to work as a servant in the household of Anne’s sister Mary for a while before becoming a carpenter and moving to Yatton, near Bristol, where his aunt Elizabeth Naish lived. Anne and William’s younger child, William, never married and eventully moved to Yatton to live with his brother.
Anne was buried in Marston Magna on the 18th of October 1886.
William Parsons (1823 to 1842)
Charles and Anne Parsons’ second son with the name William was baptised in Marston Magna on the 27th of October 1823. He lived there with his parents until he died in 1842 aged only 17 years. He was buried on the 21st of April of that year.
Uriah Parsons (1824 to 1901)
Uriah was born in Marston Magna in about 1824, so he was about 22 years old when his father Charles Parsons died in 1846.
He met his wife, Mary Ann Winter when he was working near Bridgwater, and married her in 1853. (Bridgwater is near the Somerset coast, about 20 miles from Marston Magna.)
Uriah became landlord of the Queen’s Head Inn in Corton Denham and lived there for several years with his wife Mary and their children. (The pub, now called the Queens Arms, is still a popular country inn.) Corton Denham is just three miles east of Marston Magna and two miles south of Cadbury Castle.
This is the Queens Arms, Corton Denham, as it appears today.
It was recorded in the Western Gazette that, on the 22nd May 1869, “The 2nd anniversary of the Corton Dehham Friendly Society was celebrated with a procession led by the Compton Pauncefoot Brass Band followed by a dinner in a marquee provided by Mr Uriah Parsons.”
By the mid 1870s, Uriah and his family had left Corton Denham and moved to Warminster in Wiltshire where he ran the Organ Inn in the High Street. In 1878 he was the victim of a theft there. A frequent offender, called Richard Sargood, stole a spoon from him. Sargood was imprisoned for three months. (The Organ Inn has recently been restored and is being run once again as a traditional pub).
In 1881 Uriah’s wife Mary received a legacy of £100 from the estate of Dr. Samuel Newton Parsons who was her husband’s cousin. His will gave no indication why he decided to single her out for a bequest.
In 1883, Uriah took over the management of the Albion in Cheap Street, Frome, and the family moved there. In the same year he was sued by a brewer, Mr. Knight, in connection with payment for goods supplied to him at his previous pub, the Organ, while his son was working for Mr. Knight as a traveller.
The Albion is no longer in Cheap Street, but it can be seen in this old post card.
Uriah and his family only stayed at the Albion for about a year.
Uriah, Mary and their three unmarried daughters went to live in Cardiff. Mary died there in 1888 and, after that, Uriah lived with his daughters, Amanda, Blanch and Mabel. Uriah died in Cardiff in 1901, after which the three spinsters moved to Weston-Super-Mare where they lived in a residential hotel.
Elizabeth Naish née Parsons (born 1826)
Elizabeth was born in Marston Magna and baptised there in February 1826. After her father died in 1846 she continued to live there with her mother for few years until she married William Hayman Naish who was a farmer from Chew Magna in Somerset. William and Elizabeth moved to Yatton, just west of Bristol, where he farmed 62 acres of land and lived in Brick House at North End. They had five children — William (b.1858), Ann (b.1860), Charles (b.1862), Alice (b.1864) and Celia (b.1868).
Elizabeth’s mother Ann came to live with them in Yatton for the last few years of her life and she died there in 1858 after falling and breaking her thigh.
Elizabeth died at their farm in Yatton early in 1892. Her husband William died there in 1911 having handed over the farm to his son-in-law John Webber Lewis who was his daughter Celia’s husband.
Mary Lewis née Parsons (1830 to 1902)
Mary lived in Marston Magna until March 1855 when she married William Lewis, a farmer who had been born in the cathedral city of Wells in Somerset.
At the start of their married lives, William and Mary lived on a farm near the villages of Pilton and East Compton, about two miles south west of Shepton Mallet. (Shepton Mallet in Somerset is about fifteen miles north of Marston Magna and twenty miles south of Bristol.)
William and Mary’s only child was a boy called William Parsons Lewis who was born in 1855.
By 1871 the family had moved to a larger farm at Mudford which is only a mile or two from Marston Magna. The farm was 96 acres and employed three men and two boys one of whom was Mary’s nephew Charles Traves who was the son of her widowed sister Ann. He worked there as their “indoor servant”.
When Mary’s husband grew older he handed over the running of the farm to his son William and in the mid 1890s he died. After that his widow Mary moved back to Pilton where she had lived for the early part of her married life. She stayed there until she died in 1902.
Mary and William’s son William married Anne Loveless in 1886. They had no children and she died in 1893 at which time he was declared bankrupt and gave up farming to become a commercial traveller. In 1901 he became a coal merchant in Shepton Mallet and soon afterwards he got married again; his second wife was Ethel Henrietta Oxenham. In 1906 he was once again declared bankrupt. Two years later William and Ethel emigrated to Australia with their three children Cecil, Ruby and Ralph. William died in Gosford, New South Wales, in 1937.
Return to Sidney Parsons’ Ancestors
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.