John Parsons and Mary Grills
Parents
: John Parsons' parents not
known
Sampson Grills (b 1710) and Mary (b 1715) married South Hill
John Parsons (b 1739 South Hill Cornwall, m Mary Grills 1759 South
Hill, d
1810)
Mary Grills (b 1743 South Hill, d 1794)
Elizabeth
Parsons (b 1760 Stoke Climsland, d bef 1762)
Mary
Parsons (b 1761, d bef 1769)
Elizabeth
Parsons (b 1762, d aft 1810)
Thomasin
Parsons (b 1764, m John Hawton 1786 Stoke Climsland, d 1843)
John
Parsons (b 1765 Stoke Climsland, m Susannah Hoare
1792, d aft 1810)
James
Parsons (b 1767 Stoke Climsland, d aft 1810)
Sarah
Parsons (b 1768 Stoke Climsland, d bef 1811)
Mary
Parsons (b 1769 Stoke Climsland, m
James Hawton 1791 Stoke Climsland, d
1843)
Francis
(Frank) Hawton
(b 1799 Stoke Climsland Cornwall, m Jane
Dingle 1820 Stoke Climsland)
Margaret
Hawton (b 1828 Stoke Climsland, m William Burton Mitchell 1846
Stoke Climsland Cornwall, d 1922 Essendon Vic)
William
Mitchell (b 1850 Tregorick Cornwall, m Ellen Adelaide
Cubit 1880 Sandridge Melb, d 1889 Bethanga, Vic )
Ernest Harold Mitchell
(b 1887 Whiteford, m Liela Muriel Roach
1914 Kew,
d 1960 Wodonga)
Richard John
Parsons (b 1773 Stoke Climsland, d bef 1811)
John and James Hawton were brothers
Cautionary Note
The dates for Mary Grill's birth, marriage and her parents may be sus.
The following is from an email from Richard Grylls, author of the book
GRYLLS & GRILLS, published in 1999.
Chapter 3 in Vol 1
deals with the deluge of people named Grills who lived in Southill or
South Hill [either acceptable but not South Hills], Cornwall in the
1600s and 1700s. They are also shown on Trees 1A to 1G in Vol
2. Your John Parson and Mary Grills are on Tree 1G. The
document concerning their marriage settlement has survived. I
don't have a copy, but I'd be surprised if it did not mention John
Parson's father's name. The family were from the nearby parish of
Stoke Climsland. Mary Grills's sister Grace, married George
Parson of Stoke Climsland. I have a suspicion that George and
John were brothers. Are you aware if either of them left a
will? That's not something I've looked for.
You mention the
burial date of Mary Parson nee Grills? Do you think she was
buried in South Hill? I reckon she was born in 1736, daughter of
Sampson and Mary Grills of Trefinnick, South Hill. Sampson died
in 1790 and left a will. His daughter Grace had already died, but
he mentioned her son Richard Parson, son of George Parson of Lamerton
(Devon), gent. Sampson Grills also mentioned his married
granddaughters, Elizabeth the wife of Thomas Robyns of Plymouth,
surgeon, and Mary Knighton whose husband was of ?????? Knighton Esq. of
Whitchurch, Devon. Elizabeth and Mary were the daughters of John
Parson, butcher of Stoke Climsland.
On receipt of the above I trawled FamilySearch, and just got more
confused. I found more Mary Grills
Mary Grills (b 4 Sep 1743 South Hill) m John Parsons 7 May 1759 South
Hill - (Mary's parents Sampson and Mary)
Mary Grills (b 1743 South Hill) m John Parsons 1763 -
(Mary's parents Sampson b 1710 and Mary b 1715 , married <1742>)
Mary Grills (b 22 Jan 1729 South Hill) (Mary's parents John and
Grace)
Mary Grills (b 18 Oct 1834 South Hill) (Mary's parents Henry and
?)
Mary Grills (chr 19 Feb 1735 South Hill) (Mary's parents Samp and
?)
I also found the website http://irafears.com/allindividuals/pafg799.htm
which votes for line one, above
Richard's Mary Grills b 1736 South Hill daughter of Sampson and Mary
Grills disconcertingly is not on the list.
All this is will have to wait till I get a chance to check out
Richard's book.
Richard's Mary Parson's question also awaits further research
I sent this information to Richard, and an extract of his reply follows
I did a lot of my
Grylls/Grills research in the late 1970s and early 1980s. IGI was only
just becoming available! I collected a huge amount of Grills etc.
information from the original registers, from wills, and from any other
documents I could find. [You'll be pleased to hear that I still
encounter the occasional original document which I had not found
earlier, but no shattering revelations, sadly.]
IGI is only very
partial for the parish of Southill. To get something more
complete, try www.lynherparishes.com
I haven't looked at recent updates on
this site, so do not know how far back Lynda has transcribed the
Southill register. But worth a try anyway. The Grills Clan
in Southill bred like rabbits, so there were plenty of young ladies
called Mary Grills to choose from!
I'm inclined to
trust wills and what's written in them. So, I think that the Mary
Grills who married John Parson was indeed the one born in 1736 and the
one mentioned as 'Mary Parson' in her father's (Sampson) will.
I'm also inclined to think that Sampson knew accurately who his
granddaughter Mary Parson had married. THUS, I'm inclined to
think that the Mary Parson who married Mr Hawton was NOT the daughter
of John Parson and Mary nee Grills.
Your real problem
is that the Stoke Climsland register is not too well covered by IGI
either. BUT a huge project was done on Stoke Climsland history,
and there is now a parish archive in the village. Whether it's
online or not I do not know. However, I think it would be worth
your while asking Google or some other search engine what it has on
"Stoke Climsland". I think you may well find there is another Mary
Parson, possible one born about 1760-70, and thus more suitable to be
getting married in 1791. .......
Yes, I have a copy
of Sampson Grills's 1790 will, which I could copy and send you, but,
since I'm querying (sadly) whether your Mary Parsons is a descendant of
his, perhaps it would be wise to postpone sending it for the present.
Email from Matthew Connolly (May 2007)
I descend from
the 'other' Mary Parson/s, who is mentioned in the will as Mary
Knighton; she married John Moore Knighton of Whitchurch at Linkinhorne
in 1785, and was described as being of Stoke Climsland. I'd got her as
probably the Mary baptised at Stoke C in 1761 to John and Elizabeth,
but it looks like the mother was actually Mary Grills as you have, in
order to fit in with the will information. [If so, that would be the
third time I have seen a mother incorrectly called Elizabeth in a
baptism entry- perhaps it was standard practice to use that name if the
vicar couldn't remember the right one!] I can confirm that Mary lived a
long life and never married anyone else, and I've also traced
descendants at least to 1901 for her sister Elizabeth Robins.
Your information prompted me to take another look at the records
myself- I think there are two big problems with the Family Search data,
firstly that we are not seeing the whole picture (Stoke C only has some
baptisms and no marriages, some neighbouring parishes not in at all, no
burial records, periods that are supposedly covered are incomplete),
and secondly that the genuine extracted records are mixed in with
submitted ones, where somebody has sent in a record that might not even
exist but they believe should. I think that has really muddied the
waters here, with several locally common names (John Parsons, Sampson
Grills, Mary, Elizabeth) being mistakenly equated.
It gets even more
confused as I have now found another John Parson marriage, not in the
IGI, at Stoke Climsland in 1766 to Mary Bond. So there are now four
marriages in the area in 12 years for John Parson/s- Elizabeth
(Elizabeth Caunter, 1754, also not in IGI), Mary Grills 1759, Mary
Austin 1761, and Mary Bond 1766.
I've now seen the abstract of the will of the John Parsons who
is your ancestor (let me know if you would like a copy) and it mentions
his sons James and John, and daughters Elizabeth Mason, Thomazine
Hawton and Mary Hawton. No mention of the other Elizabeth and Mary, and
no mention of Richard John Parson who the IGI submission gives as son
of John and Mary Grills. Richard John died 25 April 1848 aged 75, at
Stoke Climsland, I have his will too but it only mentions his wife. The
IGI submission says he was baptised at Stoke C in 1773 but I haven't
found a record to support that.
From the Lynher Parishes web pages- which are outstandingly useful- I
think the Grills bit goes: Sampson Grills m Mary Saltren 1734
Linkinhorne- their daughter Mary bap 1735 or 6 at South Hill- Mary
married John Parson 1759 South Hill. To corroborate both this and the
Sampson Grills will, I have the will of Mary Saltren's sister in which
she mentions her great nieces Elizabeth Robins and Mary Knighton; her
main beneficiary was Richard Parson (son of George by Grace Grills),
who in turn died childless and left the property to the son of
Elizabeth Robins. The Mary Grills who was baptised in 1743 I believe
would have been daughter of a different (probably younger) Sampson
Grills who married Mary Oake the previous year. She would then be the
Mary Grills who married John Body in 1761 while still a minor, with her
mother's permission. There is another confused IGI submission which has
the Grace who married George Parsons as daughter of Sampson Grills and
Mary Oake!
It's interesting
that the only 18th century Parsons records in the South Hill registers
are John marrying Mary Grills in 1759, George marrying Grace Grills in
1767, and two burials: Mary of Stoke Climsland in 1761 or 2, and Grace
in 1777 or 8. There is an MI there for Grace, wife of George Parson,
died 1st Feb 1778 age 35, so the latter date is correct; presumably
then Mary had died in 1762. I would have to then conclude that this was
Mary Grills, wife of John Parson, and that would be why she had only
Elizabeth in 1760 and Mary (probably) in 1761.
The upshot of all
this is that we both descend from Mary daughter of John and Mary, but I
believe it's a different Mary and a different John and Mary! There was
a will for a John Parsons of Stoke Climsland proved at Exeter in 1778,
but it would have been destroyed in the bombing of 1942 so can't help
us now, beyond proving there was more than one man of the name there at
the time. Conjecturally, my one married Mary Bond after the death of
Mary Grills, and they were parents of Richard John Parson, but there's
always the possibility of further Johns we don't yet know about! As
such, it's impossible to safely speculate on how they may have been
related, and any parentage, until we can find their baptisms (I'm
working on it, but nothing so far). In the current absence of other
candidates, I'd have to agree with the correspondent who felt Mary
Austin was most likely your ancestor; I hope this isn't a
disappointment, although I'm sure you'd rather have information as
correct as possible.
Thanks to Matthew, I also have a transcript of John Parson's Will\
Date
of Probate 16 May 1811, less than £450
Testator John Parsons of Stoke
Climsland, Yeoman
James Parsons Residuary Legatee, son,
all the rest residue and remainder of any goods and chattels
John Parsons, son, seventy eight
pounds, cancel(?) a note for twenty two pounds
Elizabeth Mason, daughter ten pounds,
cancel(?) a book debt for ninety pounds
Thomazine Hawton, daughter ninety
pounds, cancel(?) a book debt for ten pounds
Mary Hawton, daughter, one hundred
pounds
This gives us Elizabeth's married name, and the probability that the
legatees were alive in 1810.
So that is where it stands for the moment. The ball
is back in my court to do some more work
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Richard Grylls, Nicola Chapman and Matthew Connolly for their
help
Research Notes
Genes Reunited checked for
John, Mary and Sampson
Nicola Chapman supplied the
following information
Mary Grills ,,,,. I have gtten my
info from
http://www.lynherparishes.co.uk/Southill/Registers/Marriages.1566-1799.htm
M412, 1759, May, 7, PARSON John (Bn - Parsons) (S), Yeoman, Stoke
Climsland, GRILLS Mary. (S), Sp, South Hill, Bn. Sampson Grills, John
Nicholson.
According to
parish records Mary & John's first daughter Elizabeth was born in
1760 so this marriage fits. Also occupation fits because his son James
was a farmer in Venn, Southill - a husbandman and in 1812 on the Land
Tax Assesment he was registered as occupier on land owner by proprieter
William Horndon Esq, the tenement was Trevan. So it does fit that his
father John was a farmer too. I found the definition of a
¡yeoman¢ was also a farmer of middling social status.
This is only a
fairly new line to me so I have not yet got any further.
I have met someone
online though who said the following:
"I'm
interested that you have Mary GRILL(S) as Thomasin''s mother. I''ve had
trouble pursuing her line, which I originally found to include SALTREN,
PAULING and FRENCH, because the Will of Thomasin''s grandfather,
Sampson GRILLS, does not mention her.
Have you more info on this part of
the family, please?
I was forced to conclude that John
PARSONS, Thomasin''s father, may well be the one who married Mary
AUSTEN."
Follow up is on my long list of things to do
Also a GR message and database from Alexandra Stevens to follow up om
Also email from Colin Sheppard to follow up
LDS
google no joy
Note for Mary Grills (b 1743) in Susan Parson's tree on Genes Reunited
Will
Mary Grills Spinster of Southill
Extract of will at CRO 9th January 1730
Land at Landsugle
John & Elizabeth Beale and their son Sampson
Thomas Williams, Mary William, Joan Williams
Witnesses Jenny Grills, Sampson Lucas, Thos
Kerswill
Note for Sampson Lucas Grills (b
1710) in Susan Parson's tree on Genes Reunited
Sampson died in 1790 and left a will. His daughter
Grace had already died, but he mentioned her son Richard Parson, son of
George Parson of Lamerton (Devon), gent. Sampson Grills also mentioned
his married granddaughters, Elizabeth the wife of Thomas Robyns of
Plymouth, surgeon, and Mary Knighton whose husband was of ??????
Knighton Esq. of Whitchurch, Devon. Elizabeth and Mary were the
daughters of John Parson, butcher of Stoke Climsland.
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