Neighbours of William Bowden and Jane Escott

In 1841, William Escott and his wife Jane Bowden were in Moor Lane, Axbridge (Somerset). The 3 households next to them in Moor Lane contain people who may have been connected to the Bowdens or Escotts. Those households were:

• William Wear (60, brewer) and Elizabeth Wear (50)
• Elizabeth Rogers (70) and Ann Rogers (35)
• Mary Bowden (65) and Ann Allen (70)

In 1851:

• the widowed Jane Escott (née Bowden), a pauper, was in Moor Lane with her widowed son-in-law, James Parsons, and 5 of his children. James was the widow of Mary and William’s daughter Mary Escott (1805-1851).
• Elizabeth Wear (60, pauper, widow) and Mary Bowden (70, unmarried, also a pauper and described as Elizabeth’s sister), both born in Axbridge, were in Moor Lane.
• Ann Rogers (50, born in Portsmouth, Hampshire) was lodging with Nancy Escott (65, an unmarried lodging house keeper, born in Axbridge) in West Street, Axbridge. Visiting Nancy was Mary Parsons (54, née Escott).

William Escott (abt 1760-1848) and Jane Bowden (1772-1855) were my 4 x great grandparents. https://birdsofcressingham.wordpress.com/2020/10/09/william-escott-and-jane-bowden

Elizabeth Wear (née Bowden) and Mary Bowden

If Elizabeth Wear is a sister of the unmarried Mary Bowden, Elizabeth must have been born Elizabeth Bowden. So, Elizabeth is presumably the Elizabeth Bowden (a spinster) who married William Wear (a widower) in Bedminster St John, Bristol, on 26 January 1835. They were both illiterate. The witnesses were Benjamin John Room [?] and Hesther Abridge. Bdeminster is 1½ miles southwest of central Bristol and 16 miles northeast of Axbridge.

Mary Bowden was evidently also a sister of my 4 x great grandmother Jane Bowden (1772-1855).  Mary was baptised in Axbridge on 14 March 1774 and Jane was baptised there on 7 August 1772. Their parents were John Bowden (born 1751) and Mary Comer (1748-1828). I haven’t found a baptism for Elizabeth.

Nancy Escott

In 1841, Nancy Escott was a female servant at West Street, in the portion of west Street within the borough of Axbridge. Also with her then were Samuel Austin (15, baker’s Ap [?] [apprentice?] and Richard Stokes (25, male servant), presumably lodgers. Nancy died on 25 December 1859 in Axbridge. The informant was Richard Dibble of nearby Cheddar.

I haven’t found a birth record for Nancy, but presume she was a sister or other close relative of Mary Parsons, who was visiting her in 1851.

Mary Escott (1797-1878) and Thomas Parsons

Mary Escott was baptised on 15 September 1803 in Axbridge. Her parents were John Escott and Priscilla Isgar. I haven’t yet worked out who John’s parents were or where he came from. I don’t know whether Priscilla was related to John Isgar, whose daughter Jane married William Garibaldi Parsons in Compton Bishop in 1906. https://birdsofcressingham.wordpress.com/2022/08/23/some-parsons-from-axbridge

Mary married Thomas Parsons (also of Axbridge) in Axbridge on 31 May 1819. Thomas signed, but Mary signed with her mark. The witnesses were James Escott and Ann Escott, who signed with their marks.

I haven’t found a baptism record for Thomas and don’t know who his parents were.

Thomas and Mary in the 1841 and 1851 census

In 1841, Thomas Parsons (40, shoe m[aker]) and Mary Parsons, and 2 children: James Parsons (15, agricultural labourer) and Charlotte (10), were in Green Buildings, Bedminster.

It seems that the 1851 census picked up Mary twice: once visiting Nancy Escott in Axbridge and a 2^nd time with her family in Bedminster. The 1851 census shows Thomas (59) and Mary (50) in Green Buildings, West Street, Bedminster with their:

• widowed son James (29), with James’s young sons James (3) and Henry (1) and mother-in-law, Ann Fear (a blind, pauper, seamstress, born in Westbury, Wiltshire)
• daughter Charlotte (24)
• daughter Hannah (28). She may be a 20-year-old Hannah Parsons who was in Axbridge workhouse in 1841. I haven’t found a baptism record for Hannah.
• grandson William Garland (son of Elizabeth Priscilla Parsons and Daniel Garland). William also appeared on the same census with his parents (and a young brother and baby sister), in West Street, Bedminster.

All were listed as being born in Bedminster, except Mary (listed as born in Mark, Somerset) and Ann Fear. It is not clear why Mary’s birthplace was given as Mark, which is 10 miles southwest of Axbridge. The 1861 census correctly gives James’s birthplace as Axbridge, so it seems that the 1851 census was inaccurate.
Update October 2023. I now think the census enumerator wrote the birthplace of Mary’s daughter-in-law, (Hannah Fear, born in Mark) on the wrong line. https://birdsofcressingham.wordpress.com/2023/10/10/who-was-mary-parsons-mary-escott-or-mary-fear/

Occupations

The 1841 census showed Thomas a shoemaker and James as an agricultural labourer. Then, when James married Hannah Fear (1823-1859) in Bedminster on 20 August 1843, both Thomas and James were cordwainers (ie shoemakers). (James and Hannah were both residing then at Green Building and were both illiterate.)

By 1851, Thomas and James had become coal miners, a striking change of profession! Mary and Hannah were charwomen and Charlotte was a staymaker. William was ‘scholar British’.

After 1851

Thomas Parsons, of West Street Bedminster, was buried in Bedminster on 13 August 1851, aged 60. That age is consistent with the ages given in the 1841 and 1851 censuses. The 1851 census says his birthplace was Bedminster.

Mary Parsons (née Escott) was lodging in Bedminster in 1861 (with a family called Denty) and 1871 (with a family called Lacey). She died in 1878.

After Hannah Fear died in 1859, James married Caroline Adela Flower (again in Bedminster) within 6 months and went on to have 10 children with her.  

James Parsons (1790-1853) and Mary Escott (1805-1851)

Census records for 1841 and 1851 imply James was born between 1796 (or perhaps 1794) and 1801. He was buried in Axbridge on 28 April 1853, aged 63 (implying birth around 1790). I’m not sure who his parents were. There are 2 baptisms in Axbridge that could be his:

• 12 September 1798, son of James and Martha [née Carpenter]. This baptism looks the better match with the dates in the censuses and with the date of his 1^st marriage in 1818.
• 7 April 1803, son of John and Sarah [née Durban]. Sarah looks a more likely name for the mother than Martha because the couple called their first child Sarah (1818-1820), and also gave that name to a child baptised in 1826. He didn’t call any of his children Martha.

Update July 2022. I now know that the James Parsons who married Mary Escott (1805-1851) is not the one baptised in 1803. https://birdsofcressingham.wordpress.com/2022/07/24/parents-of-james-parsons-1790-1853/ The only remaining obvious candidate is the one baptised in 1798.

James Parsons’ 1^st marriage

James Parsons’ 1^st marriage was to Jane Marshall (1799-1926), in Axbridge on 2 August 1818. They were both of Axbridge and were both illiterate. The witnesses were William Pool and John Tuthill Clerk. (The latter was a regular witness, so I presume Clerk was an office, not part of his name.) James and Jane had 6 children; the 1^st child, Sarah, was baptised on 27 December 1818.

Marriage to Mary Escott

Mary Escott was a daughter of William Escott and Jane Bowden. She married James Parsons (widower, also of Axbridge) in Axbridge on 27 July 1827. The witnesses were [the mark of] Grace Coomer and John Tuthill Clerk. James and Mary were both illiterate. As was also the case for James’s marriage with Jane Marshall, James and Mary’s 1^st child was born within 4 months of the wedding (21 October 1827).

At least 1 of Mary and James’s 8 children emigrated to the US, having a large family there.

Thomas Parsons and James Parsons

I haven’t yet worked out:

• whether Thomas Parsons (1791-1851), husband of Mary Escott (1797-1878) was related to James Parsons (1790-1853), husband of Mary Escott (1805-1851).
• whether Mary Escott (1797-1878) was related to my Escott ancestors (and thus to Mary Escott (1805-1851). Nevertheless, DNA testing links me to several descendants of Thomas Parsons and Mary Escott (1797-1878) and their trees show no other obvious links to my tree.

Elizabeth Rogers and Ann Rogers

Presumably Elizabeth Rogers (70) was the mother (or mother-in-law) of Ann Rogers (35). An 81 year old Elizabeth Rogers was buried in Axbridge on 28 October 1850.

The 1851 census reveals that Ann Rogers was born in Portsmouth and I have no reason to think she had any connections with the Bowdens or Escotts.

Ann Allen

I don’t know who Ann Allen was. Could she be Ann Bowden, who married James Allen at St Stephen Bristol on 11 June 1812? If so, she might be yet anther sister of Jane, Mary and Elizabeth Bowden.

Conclusions

Mary Bowden and Elizabeth Wear (née Bowden) were sisters of Jane Bowden.

Ann Allen might conceivably be another Bowden sister, though there isn’t much evidence to go on. On the other hand, Ann Rogers seems unconnected.

It seems plausible that Nancy Escott was a sister or other close relative of Mary Parsons (née Escott, 1797-1878), but I haven’t found a birth record for Nancy.

DNA tests suggest that Mary Escott (1797-1878), daughter of John Escott and Priscilla Isgar, descended from my Escott ancestors, but I haven’t yet found the link because I don’t know where and when John was born, nor have I found out who his parents were.

I don’t know who the parents of Thomas Parsons and James Parsons were, though it seems possible that they might have been related to each other.

Unanswered questions

• When were Elizabeth Bowden and Nancy Escott baptised?
• Who was Ann Allen? Was she another Bowden?
• When was John Escott (husband of Priscilla Isgar) baptised and who were his parents?
• Who were the parents of Thomas Parsons and James Parsons?
• Why did the 1851 census for Bedminster give the birthplace of Mary Parsons [née Escott] as Mark (Somerset), not Axbridge? Update October 2023. I now think the census enumerator wrote the birthplace of Mary’s daughter-in-law, (Hannah Fear, born in Mark) on the wrong line. https://birdsofcressingham.wordpress.com/2023/10/10/who-was-mary-parsons-mary-escott-or-mary-fear/
• Was Grace Coomer, witness at the marriage of Mary Escott and James Parsons, related to the Escotts and Bowdens? Jane Bowden’s mother was Mary Comer.