52Ancestors: Richard PARSONS 1704-1767, Warwickshire England

Continuing the #52Ancestors [52 weeks] challenge by genealogist Amy Johnson Crow, here is the 7th great-grandfather of my son-in-law, Richard PARSONS of Warwickshire England. 

Luckily for this particular challenge, images of the parish registers of baptisms and marriages for St. Mary's Church of England, in Warwick Warwickshire, are available on FindMyPast, some also on Ancestry. See image on right: [2006-02-10 M.Field:St. Mary's church in Warwick UK the tower as viewed from the top of Warwick Castle, taken and uploaded by Matthew Field http://www.mattfield .com]

Parts of this very large church are approximately 1,000 years old, with old gravestones on one side of the church grounds. 

Richard was the third of 4 children found to date of Robert PARSONS and Susanna [unknown].He was baptised November 25, 1704 - baptism register snippet is on the left. He had an older brother, Robert, an older sister Mary, and a younger brother Samuel. There may be other siblings, but they have not been found clearly in baptisms. Several possible siblings include perhaps a Thomas and a Samuel, who both show up having children baptised in the same church, around the same decade/s.  Richard's father, Robert also seems to have two or three possible siblings living in Warwick, a Thomas and a Samuel, which common names seem to indicate a relationship to be researched if possible.

On May 13th, 1727, Richard married Sarah JEFFS, daughter of William JEFFS & Mary [unknown] at St. Mary's church. Sarah was the eldest daughter, with sisters Alice and Ann, and brothers, William, Thomas, and Richard.  This is a little difficult to read, but hopefully clear enough.  It is a poor copy and I need to do more work to clarify it - this was taken from Ancestry, but I have a copy from FindMyPast, which is the same image.

Only 2 children are found on baptism registers for Richard and Sarah:
   1.  Thomas, [ancestor] bap 2 Jun 1728, d. possibly before 12 Feb 1786; m. Mary [unknown], approx 1752, in Oxhill, a tiny village about 14 miles south of Warwick; only 1 child known [ancestor].
  2.  Mary, bap 9 May 1730; no further information found to date. 

Below is a snippet of Thomas Parsons in the church register:

It is possible that Richard's wife Sarah died within a few years after Mary was born in 1730, which would explain why I cannot find any further children. However, I need to dig further in burial records to be sure. I found that he church burial register has more info about the costs of : the burials, opening the ground, passing [the coffin] through the church, etc., than clearly writing down the names and dates of the deceased!  I've put this on my to-do list.

I have no information about Richard's occupation nor his father's.  Living in the city of Warwick, population about 96,000 in 1700, this family likely were involved either in trade of some sort, or farm work. I had hoped to find a will with some details that would indicate his occupation [work tools, land].  Perhaps the Hearth Taxes would give details.  More items on the to-do list.

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If these are your ancestors, I am happy to share what little I have on these ancestors. And if there are errors, please do let me know, via calewis at telus dot net, or in the Comments below and I will get back to you either by email or in the Comments. I appreciate the opportunity to correct any issues in these family trees.

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