Research Forum

According to our transcriptions the marriage of Francis PARKER and Sarah Luffman BATT took place at Wick St Lawrence not Hewish.  Their first children were also christened at Wick St Lawrence.  It could be that the Overseers' Accounts for Wick St Lawrence might note when he first arrived - either because he was receiving help or became a rate payer of the parish. Have you found Francis PARKER on the 1841 Census? 

Thankyou both (Nathan and Pat) for your thoughts. I appreciate your help.

You are quite right, Pat. The marriage was in Wick St Lawrence. Quite why I relied on my (increasingly unreliable) memory and put Hewish I do not know. Ah well. I will contact Somerset Heritage Centre about the Wick St Lawrence Overseers Accounts. Unfortunately as I now live in Nottingham a personal search is not practicable. Wick St Lawrence was quite a distance from High Ham. I am struggling to understand what made him move there. As far as I can establish there was no previous family connection with Wick.

No I have not found Francis in the 1841 census. His parents, Samuel and Ann, were living at Broadacre, High Ham but he was not with them. And I have failed to find him anywhere else yet.

I have tried searching the Newspaper Archives on several occasions in the past without success. I have just completed another unsuccesful search.

Thank you for reminding me about this 1841 Census record. I first saw it several years ago when I first started researching my family tree seriously. I dismissed it at the time because I couldn't find any connection between this PARKER family and "my" Francis. But it deserves to be re-visited and that's what I shall do. I will let you know the outcome.

This is an update on my last posting. I apologise for the length, but I thought it important to lay out as much detail as possible.

My maternal 2*great grandfather was Francis PARKER. He was baptised in High Ham on 25 October 1827. According to the transcripts on FreeReg, Ancestry, FamilySearch and elsewhere he was the son of Samuel and Ann PARKER. Until very recently I (and others researching this line) had therefore assumed that he was the son of Samuel PARKER and Ann TYLEY (nee COOK) who were married in High Ham on 12 June 1832. But I am beginning to doubt whether this is so and am hoping that members of this Group will have the time and the inclination to review my thought processes and let me have their thoughts, please.

My doubts start with the 1841 Census (and I am grateful to Sue for reminding me about this). At that time Samuel and Ann were living together at Broadacre, High Ham. Francis, who would have been around 13 at the time, was not living with them. The only likely Francis PARKER that I could trace in the 1841 Census was living in nearby Aller. The members of the household were:

Sarah PARKER – 35

Frances (sic) PARKER – 13 (a male)

George PARKER - 8

Henry PARKER – 6

Samuel PARKER – 4.

When I first found this record I could not find a link between the other members of this household and “my” Francis so I put it to one side. Some time has passed since then, more records have become available online and I have recently been reminded of this record, so I have looked at it again. My latest researches have unearthed the following:

Francis PARKER was baptised at High Ham on 25 October 1827. As indicated his parents were recorded as Samuel and Ann.

George PARKER was baptised at Aller on 6 January 1833. According to the online transcripts his parents were George and Sarah.

Henry PARKER was baptised at Aller on 5 April 1835. His parents were Samuel and Sarah.

Samuel PARKER was baptised at Aller on 23 July 1837. His parents were Samuel and Sarah.

On the face of it these 4 boys had 3 sets of parents but were all living with the same adult female. Why? And what was the connection between them? To see if I could answer these questions I tried to trace what happened to each of them subsequently:

I already knew that Francis had moved north to Wick St Lawrence where he married Sarah Luffman BATT on 15 January 1850.

At the time of the 1851 Census George was living in Yatton (in service to the LAVER family.

In 1861 and 1871 Henry was in the Workhouse in High Ham.

By 1871 Samuel was living in Congresbury with his wife Susan and 4 children, 2 of whom had been baptised in Puxton and 2 in Hewish.

So, 3 of the 4 had moved further north in Somerset to within a spitting distance of one another. There was clearly a strong bond between them.

In fact there was another link. I believe that Samuel married Susan PAYNE at St Luke’s, Bedminster on 18 September 1864. According to the marriage record her father was Edward PAYNE. According to the 1871 Census record she was born in Wick St Lawrence. I believe she was baptised at WSL on 5 March 1843 and was a daughter of Edward PAIN and Mary BATT who were married at Wick St Lawrence on 31 March 1831. This is important because Sarah Luffman BATT (the wife of Francis) was the illegitimate daughter of Mary BATT (having been baptised in Congresbury on 13 December 1829). So Francis and Samuel’s wives were step-sisters.

The more I thought about this the more I began to wonder whether Francis, George, Henry and Samuel were all brothers. According to the baptismal records, 3 of them had a father called Samuel and 3 (a different 3) had a mother called Sarah. So, I looked for a marriage of Samuel and Sarah and found:

Samuel PARKER married to Sarah CULLEN at High Ham on 8 November 1825 (witness 1 was another Samuel PARKER).

This led me to the following:

Charles PARKER baptised at High Ham on 10 December 1825 to parents Samuel and Sarah. (I haven’t yet established what happened to him.)

So, putting 2 and 2 together somewhat tentatively I have:

Samuel PARKER married Sarah CULLEN at High Ham on 8 November 1825

Charles PARKER baptised at High Ham on 10 December 1825 to parents Samuel and Sarah

Francis PARKER baptised at High Ham on 25 October 1827 to parents Samuel and (Ann?)

George PARKER baptised at Aller on 6 January 1833 to parents (George?) and Sarah

Henry Parker baptised at Aller on 5 April 1835 to parents Samuel and Sarah

Samuel PARKER baptised at Aller on 23 July 1837 to parents Samuel and Sarah.

Sarah was probably a widow at the time of the 1841 Census (although I haven’t found a death/burial for her husband, Samuel). She certainly was on 17 July 1842 because that is when she re-married (to James MERRIOTT in Aller. It was presumably the death of her first husband, Samuel PARKER, and her re-marriage which precipitated the departure of the children. By 1851 only the youngest, Samuel, was living with her and her new family. (I don’t know what happened to Charles by the way.)

So, my question is: what is the likelihood that the 4 males who were living with Sarah in 1841 and Charles were in fact all brothers and that the mother of Francis and the father of George were incorrectly recorded as Ann and George respectively?