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William Parkin was baptized 25 March 1758. His father died less than 8 months later, and his mother married Richard Watson when William was about four years old; he had five Watson half-siblings. He married Elizabeth Raw in 1786 and they had seven children in Middleton in Teesdale. He retired and moved back to Mickleton where he died 27 March 1827.
William was baptized 25 March 1758 [1] at Romaldkirk, Yorkshire, England. His parents were given as William and Agnes.
William married Elizabeth Raw 17 Dec 1786. [2]
Transcriptions from Middleton-in-Teesdale church records on the GENUKI website [3] contain the following events:
The birth surname of Elizabeth on the 1786 marriage record is transcribed as Race at the GENUKI website but is transcribed as Raw on the Durham Records Online website. Both websites give her surname as Raw on the 1798 birth of son Richard. The two names, Race and Raw, can appear similar when written. Spring Hill and Stanhope Gate are adjacent farms on the east side of Middleton, in the Laneside area.
The 26 Mar 1827 will of William Parkin of Mickleton in the Parish of Romaldkirk left legacies to his wife, his daughter Ann, and his grandson William Raine, son of Charles and Elizabeth Raine.
According to an inscription on a monument in Romaldkirk, William Parkin died 27 Mar, but no year is given in the source. [4]
A close examination of a photo of the monument at Find-a-Grave shows that the date of death is 27 Mar 1827. [5]
For information on William's sons William and John who immigrated to Canada, see the attached file: The Parkins of Teesdale and New Brunswick, published in the Cleveland, North Yorkshire and South Durham FHS Journal, January 2022, Volume 15, Number 1, pages 46-52.
This William Parkin who married Elizabeth Raw was not the son of Thomas Parkin and Phillis Raine, as shown by William's 1827 will. In that will, he referred to his grandson William Raine, son of Charles and Elizabeth Raine, so he was the William Parkin who married Elizabeth Raw. He also appointed his half brother Richard Watson as his executor so he was the son of Agnes Perkin who married William Parkin and then married Richard Watson after the death of her first husband.
Connections to Super Bowl halftime show performers: William is 23 degrees from Prince Nelson, 16 degrees from Dan Aykroyd, 18 degrees from Garth Brooks, 25 degrees from Chubby Checker, 24 degrees from Ella Fitzgerald, 22 degrees from Dusty Hill, 29 degrees from Whitney Houston, 19 degrees from Mick Jagger, 19 degrees from Paul McCartney, 19 degrees from Tom Petty, 20 degrees from Chris Stapleton and 16 degrees from Shania Twain on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.
The question to be decided is which William Parkin (Parkin-1464 or Parkin-1888) married Elizabeth Raw. When we determine that answer, we can unlink the incorrect William Parkin from his corresponding Elizabeth Raw (Parkin-1464 from Raw-182 or Parkin-1888 from Raw-330) and then merge the two Elizabeth Raw profiles.
I also continue to think that Parkin-1464 (the son of William Parkin-1466 and Agnes Parkin-1608) is the one who married Elizabeth Raw. I have reread my article on the Parkins and found also this evidence: “The papers of Raleigh Parkin include an 1874 letter from William R. Ball, the vicar of Laithkirk parish, to George Parkin with notes on the Parkin family including the sentences ‘your grandfather … went to live at Middleton Teesdale. Ret. to Mickleton in old age and lived there.’” I then looked for the burial of William and Elizabeth in Romaldkirk cemetery and found them.
You had posted that the second William on that gravestone might be the grandson of the first William. The MI says “son” so I am more inclined to assume he is the son. Also, the first William Parkin on the MI died at age 26 so is unlikely to have had a grandson.
I found that in 2016 I had bought (from the National Archives) probate information on a Thomas Parkin. The information provided is a summary from 1 August 1811 of the will of Thomas Parkin of Mickleton in the parish of Romaldkirk, Farmer, appointing his son John Parkin of Mickelton aforesaid Farmer his son as executor and leaving legacies to Margt wife of Thomas Raine (daughter), Phillis wife of John Robinson (daughter), Thomas Parkin (grandson), Jane Parkin (granddaughter), Thomas and John Parkin (sons and executors). No William is mentioned.
William Parkin and Elizabeth Raw named their children, in order: Ann, Elizabeth, Ann, William, John, Robert, and Richard. These include children named after Elizabeth’s parents (Richard and Ann). William Parkin-1464’s parents were William Parkin-1466 and Agnes Parkin-1608, so it is odd there is no Agnes, but I continue to think she also went by Ann. William Parkin-1888’s parents were Thomas Parkin-1888 and Phillis Raine-613; none of the children are named after them.
I think the weight of the evidence is that Parkin-1464 (the son of William Parkin-1466 and Agnes Parkin-1608) is the one who married Elizabeth Raw. Given that William Parkin-1888 is not mentioned in the 1811 will of his father Thomas, I think he probably died before that date, with no issue.
Jane
edited by Jane Fraser
I have done a lot of research on William Parkin and Elizabeth Raw, as documented in the pdf article attached on the Parkin-1464 page, but I am not absolutely certain that I identified his parents correctly. I wrote in that article: "The William Parkin who married Elizabeth Raw was, I think, the William Parkin baptised 25 Mar 1758 in Romaldkirk; his parents were William Parkin and Agnes/Ann Parkin/Perkin. If I have identified the correct monumental inscription, the senior William Parkin died 15 November 1758, less than 8 months after the birth of his only child. I think that his widow married a Richard Watson 22 May 1762 in Middleton-in-Teesdale when the junior William Parkin was 4; they lived on the High Dike farm and had several children. Finally we have a connection between the Parkins and the Watsons: George Parkin’s grandfather William Parkin was raised in a Watson family with a stepfather named Richard Watson and with Watson half-siblings, including John Perkin Watson born 1777. These people could be the Richard Watson and Parkin Watson mentioned by George Parkin." There is a lot of circumstantial evidence pieced together there, as described earlier in the article, but it makes sense to me.
Do you have evidence that William Parkin's parents were Thomas Parkin and Phillis Raine?
The Parkins, Raines, and Watsons intermarried so much it is hard to sort them out.
How should we proceed? Jane