Parkhouse Family
History
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James Parkhouse b.1813, chr,13.Oct.1816,
d.1866?
James was born 1813 in Buckland Brewer,
North Devon, but was christened on 13th.October
1816, Catsborough, Frithelstock, Buckland Brewer (he appears to have used this
date as his birth date later). Father was
Bartholomew and mother Elizabeth (nee Wheeler) who married on
30th.June 1803, again in Buckland.
In 1837 he married Margaret Brown in Abbotsham
and she gave birth to John in Morthoe in 1838 and Mary Anne on
13th.January 1839 (baptised 3rd. February) in
Horwood Village. James was shown as a carpenter on
her birth certificate.
They seem to have parted soon after this as in
the 1841 census he was shown as residing in East-the-Water, Bideford employed as
a shipwright and she in Horewood, with the children, as an agricultural
labourer.
Many ships were built over the next few years
in Bideford sailing to and from Canada, particularly
Prince Edward
Island ( where there was also a thriving shipbuilding
industry), taking emigrants over there and returning with timber. These journeys
could be only made in the summer months due to ice, each trip taking about six
weeks, so therefore most ships could only do two round trips each
year.
According to letters left by George T
Parkhouse, a son of James through his marriage to Elizabeth Holman, James was a
stowaway on a ship in 1844. It hit
a severe storm and a mast collapsed over the side. Having his carpentry tools on
board James offered his services to the Captain and they managed a temporary
repair to the mast and proceeded to Halifax, Nova Scotia where the ship was put in good
order again. They then proceeded to Prince Edward
Island and St. Johns, New
Brunswick.
There were only a few ships that left Bideford Port that year, the largest, carrying 70
passengers, was the Barque “Hartland” (similar to that on the cover), 487 tons,
sailing on 27th.April and arriving in Halifax 44 days later under
Captain Gilman. From there to P.E.I. and on to
Quebec, (as reported in the “Islander” a
P.E.I. newspaper on 21st.June, 1844.)
This vessel was registered and built by Thomas
H. Haviland in the port of P.E.I. in1843.
Elizabeth Holman was on the same ship as James
along with her mother, Elizabeth Williams Holman and several brothers and
sisters who were going to join the oldest son, James Holman in S.Winslow P.E.I.
He emigrated in 1836, age 18years, a year after his father, also James, died in
Westleigh, N.Devon on 24th.April 1835, aged 43 years. It is likely that James
and Elizabeth knew each other before the voyage, she living in Westleigh and him
less than 3 miles away in East-the-Water.
They were married on 28th.October
1844 as per the following entry in the “ P.E.I.Marriage Register 1844-1852,
p.35:-
Holman, Elizabeth, spinster, Parkhouse, James,
bachelor, (although still married to Margaret)
Married by license by
L.C.Jenkin
Recorded 3rd.January, 1845 by
R.Hodgson Sur.
Witnesses- George Holman b.19Aug.1821 and Maria
Holman b.5Mar.1825. ( Brother and sister of Elizabeth).
They then settled in
Saint John, New
Brunswick, whilst her mother joined her farmer son James
in Winslow, P.E.I., (where she died on 18th.
Jan.1875.)
Then on to Portland, Maine, where William Henry was born in
1849, after two children died,
followed by Elizabeth Jane in 1851 and then
George Thomas in 1853.
From here they moved to
Montreal where
Elizabeths sister Caroline Louise lived, married to Robert
Gladstone. More children were born here, Mary Ann 1855, Frederick James 1858,
Emma Louisa 1860. They now travel through Lake Ontario to Ingersoll.
Oxford County, as recorded in the 1861 Census (
See the separate page with all census details and birth dates
etc,).
As a ship’s carpenter James almost certainly
travelled across the Atlantic to North Devon
and back to P.E.I. many times in the first ten years of their married
life. He was recorded as staying in Northam Ridge, Bideford, in the 1951 census.
This was the year that his (first) wife, Margaret married John May on
5th.December. They may have divorced, but no record can be found. From 1860 on,
it appears that James sailed on ships working the Great Lakes.
The next record found is in the 1870
Clinton, Iowa census which shows
Elizabeth with all her children, but no James. According to her obituary in
May 1903, in Jamestown North Dakota, it states that James died 36 years
previously. This ties in with an account by son George Thomas that he had to
sell newspapers in Chicago in the mid 1860’s to help his
widowed mother.
No record can be found of James,s death (if he
did die, bearing in mind his
previous history).
However there were many deaths in shipping
disasters on the Great Lakes and the rivers
Ohio, Missouri and
Mississippi during 1865/6/7. In 1865 there were
421 disasters including the sinking of the "Sultana", carrying Union soldiers
returning from the civil war, where1547 died (still the highest death toll in a
single sinking). 1866 had 621 disasters with 175 deaths and in 1867 211 died in
931 incidents.
What happened to the
children?
William Henry- In the 1910 St.Louis,
Missouri, census he was a Retail Merchant,
married twice, now with Marie C., for the last 28 years. Her parents were born
in France. No Children.
Elizabeth Jane- Married to William Staner , living
in Nashville, Tennessee.
George Thomas- Was a Millwright and built many
cotton gins (cotton separation plants) throughout the South and
Texas. He was President of the "Oil Mill
Superintendents Associaton" a Freemason and strict teetotaller. Talked about his
education in the "Dallas Morning News", 1945, being from the “school of hard
knocks” and that “he didn’t hold with ancestry”. His son George Marshall P
served as a State Senator for 30+ years.
George was married to Emma (Todd) in
Cook County. Illinois for 29 years.
Isobella Caroline- Married James B. Blades in 1883
and lived in Jamestown, North
Dakota.
Emma Louise- Became Mrs. Juhl and lived in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
All the above were alive when their
mother, Elizabeth, died on the 5th .May 1903 in
Jamestown, according to her obituary, but
there were 10 children in total. We know that two died in infancy before 1849
and that Mary Ann and Frederick James must have died between the 1870 census and
1903, leaving one unknown.