Sidney Alfred Parsons and his Ancestors

Harriet Eliza Parsons née Boyes (1852 to 1921)

Harriet Eliza Boyes was the mother of Sidney Alfred Parsons who is the main subject of this genealogical web site.

Harriet was born in Fair Oak, a few miles north of Southampton, on the 5th of July 1852. Her parents were William Boyes, a Timber Merchant and farmer, and his wife Harriet (previously Noble, née Slade). William Boyes’ father was the well known John Boyes of Owslebury, in Hampshire, who had achieved notoriety during the 1830 agricultural riots, usually known today as the “Swing” riots. Both of Harriet’s parents had children from previous marriages.

The spelling of Harriet’s name in the records is not consistent; sometimes it ends with one ‘t’ and on other occasions there were two.

Harriet grew up at Crowd Hill Farm in Fair Oak (the farm is near Fishers Pond), where her father was a farmer and timber dealer. She lived with her parents and her brothers John, Edward, George, Alfred, Richard and Enos. Her half brothers and sisters had all moved out of the family home by the time that Harriet was old enough to get to know them.

On the 16th of March 1872 Harriet married John Parsons, a Southampton publican who was descended from the Parsons family of Marston Magna in Somerset. John’s father Edward Parsons still lived there although several of John’s brothers and sisters had moved to the Southampton area.

Harriet and John lived in a succession of Southampton pubs which she helped her husband to run - the Saracen’s Head in Albert Road, the Blue Boar in East Street, the Victoria and Albert in Orchard Lane, the St. George Hotel in Bridge Street, the Freemantle Hotel in Park Road, the Portswood Hotel in Bevois Valley Road, the Fish and Kettle Tavern in French Street, the Burton Ale House in Orchard Lane, and finally, the Salisbury Arms in French Street, where they settled down.

Harriet was a robust and strong willed individual who played an active part in the running of her husband’s pubs as can be seen from the following newspaper report from December 1878 when she was prosecuted for assault but acquitted:


“ALLEGED ASSAULT - John Parsons, landlord of the Victoria and Albert, Orchard-lane, appeared on behalf of his wife in answer to a summons for assaulting Mary Ann Cotten, on Thursday evening. The complainant said a woman took her into Parsons’ house and paid for a glass of gin. The woman drank her glass up and went away, leaving complainant there, and Mrs. Parsons wanted complainant to pay for it a second time, and because she would not she struck complainant in the face giving her a black eye. She told a man named Cruse to put her out, and in doing so he pushed her down, and dislocated her shoulder. The defendant said he could prove that that same evening the complainant was going into Nutley’s back way. There were some planks in the yard, where they had been getting a boiler in, and she fell over them, causing the injuries complained of. Henrietta Musselbrook, who lives in King-street, was called, and proved seeing the woman fall down. She cried out ‘Oh, my shoulder. Oh, my face.’ She was intoxicated, and a man dragged her by her arm into a house in King-street. A young man named Fielder, who was in the bar at the time the complainant was there, swore Mrs. Parsons never struck the woman. The magistrates did not believe a word the woman had said. They believed she was drunk and fell over the planks. The summons was dismissed. A second summons taken out by the woman against the man Cruse was also dismissed.”
 

Harriet and John had three sons who were all born at the Blue Boar Inn, and a daughter who was still-born while they were living at the St. George's Hotel.

Harriet died of bronchitis on the 14th of February 1921, six months after her son Sidney and his family had returned to Southampton from Australia.

Children of Harriet and John Parsons

•  William John Leonard was born in July 1874 at the Blue Boar Inn. He lived in Southampton all his life and never married. He earnt money from taking illegal bets and, in later life, he kept a boarding house next to his father’s pub, the Salisbury Arms. William died in 1823, two years after his mother, at his father’s pub, the Salisbury Arms. He left his father a sizeable legacy.

•  Ernest George Archibald was was born on the 3rd of March 1876 but died just six weeks later.

•  Sidney Alfred Francis was born on the 3rd of March 1877, exactly one year after his brother Ernest. When he grew up he worked in the docks, but when there was a call for volunteers to fight in the Boer War, he joined the Imperial Yeomanry and went to South Africa. After his return he married, and then emigrated with his family to Queensland, Australia, where he lived for about 12 years before returning to Southampton. His mother Harriet died soon after their return. Two years later Sidney’s brother William died and then, three weeks later his wife Dorothy died too. Just one year after his wife’s death Sidney also died leaving their orphaned children to be brought up by relatives and foster parents. Sidney was a grandfather of the author of this web page. Please click on the following link to go to — Sidney Parsons’s Biographical Web Page.

•  Harriet and John’s last child, their un-named daughter, was still-born on the 18th of June 1881.

Ancestors of Harriet Eliza Boyes


Parents
Father — William Boyes
Mother — Harriet Slade

Grandparents
Grandfather — John Boyes
Grandmother — Faith Newlyn

Grandfather — John Slade
Grandmother — Mary Diaper

Great-grandparents
Great-grandfather — Edward Boyes
Great-grandmother — Eleanor Woods

Great-grandfather — William Newlyn
Great-grandmother — Jane Elkins

Great-grandfather — James Slade
Great-grandmother — Sarah Warner

Great-grandfather — Thomas Diaper
Great-grandmother — Catherine (surname unknown)



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.