Thomas Hughes Parker
Minister at New Chapel, Horwich, 1907–1921 (approx.)
Thomas Hughes Parker (my great grandfather) was the husband of Emma Hester Parker. They were the parents of my father's mother Emmie Parker, my grandmother. As the Rev. Parker he was Minister of Bourne United Reformed Church before he moved to New Chapel in Horwich in around 1907 where he was Minister until his retirement. He died in 1946 aged 82 and is buried in Bourne town cemetery next to his second wife Ethel (née Branston) who died in 1959 aged 83. Emma Hester had died in the year 1895 after giving birth to my grandmother and is buried in the same cemetery.
Thomas Parker's parents were James and Jane Parker. James married Jane Hughes in about 1858. Thomas had three sisters and two brothers: Katherine Ann (married William Coulson and had six children), Eliza 1869-1914 (married William Little and had three children), Margaret Jane (married William Little after Eliza died), Adam (died as a baby) and John (died aged 21). More here »
The Parkers seem to have moved around – from Wales to Scotland and then to north east England – to work in various iron works. In 1841 when James was 3 they were living in accommodation on the site of the Nantyglo iron works in Monmouthshire. In 1851, the same family was living in Calderbank, Lanarkshire, which was also a centre of the iron industry in the 19th century. According to a census, James is already an iron worker at the age of 13. Then in 1861 he was living in Walker, a suburb of Newcastle, shortly before he married. He then moved Whitton Park, just outside Bishop Auckland (the site of another iron works) where Thomas Hughes Parker was born, before finally settling in Hartlepool. He worked in the iron industry his entire life.
According to an old family tree:
"Katherine Ann and William Coulson (both of Hartlepool) had a son Cuthbert (approx 1885-1948) who married Emily Harrison. Cuthbert and Emily had a son Cuthbert born about 1913 and died some time around 1955-60. They (Katherine Ann and William) also had a son James who may have married a woman called Dora, a daughter Jane (1887 to about 1947) who married Claud and had Kenneth and three stepsons, a daughter Lillian (born 1890) who married a man named Macdonald (died aged about 56) and had a daughter Joyce (who married a man called Stanley and had a son Nigel), Thomas who married a woman called Lillian and had a daughter Jean (killed in a car crash), and Catherine ('Kitty' born 1894) who married a man called Thomas (died about 1960) and had two children, one of whom was called Douglas and had three girls: Carrol, Barbara and another daughter. The children of Katherine Ann and William Coulson were nieces or nephews of the Rev. Thomas Hughes Parker.
"Eliza and William Little had a son, John (1893 to about 1958) who married Annie Lovelace, a daughter Jane (Jenny) and another son, William."
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