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Family Notes Sept. 2009
Family Notes June 2009 Family Notes Sept. 2009 Family Notes Dec. 2009

 

 

Family Notes - September 2009

 

This is a sample of the information provided to members of the P*rr*tt Society in the September 2009 edition of Family Notes. Family Notes is a 56-page printed magazine that is distributed to society members every quarter.

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Perrott Criminals!

MARY PARROTT from Cork. Dark complexion, brown hair, dark hazel eyes. Sentenced 9 Dec 1801 to be whipped and imprisoned for 6 months in the house of correction at Newgate for stealing a loin of pork from the shop of John Drew.
 

It’s often rewarding to a family historian to find a criminal amongst the ancestors. Not of course because of any sympathy with their crimes but simply because it makes them seem more real to us and not simply a name and a date. Why did they do what they did? Was it common or garden criminality ? Did they have hungry children at home? Were they mentally ill?

As more and more material becomes available on the Internet we can gain a better insight into the lives of our forebears. Now available on www.ancestry.co.uk are the criminal registers for England and Wales 1791-1892 and the details of the unfortunate Mary’s punishment described above are amongst the cases listed there.

Was 20 year old Yorkshire labourer John Parrott an out and out villain when he stole a shirt in 1793? Whatever his motive he paid dearly for the crime – he was sentenced to one month in Newgate and to be publicly whipped. His is one of the earliest crimes committed by a P*RR*TT that I have so far found on the site. The records always give a brief description of the accused: in this case he had ‘brown hair, grey eyes and a pale complexion.’

Because of the availability of transportation as a form of punishment I can see that our overseas members may well find material of direct interest to them on this site. For example Robert Parrott, who used the alias ‘Samuel Barrett’ was a 48 year old man who could read and write was tried at Boston (Lincolnshire) Borough Sessions on 30 Oct 1835 for larceny and sentenced to transportation for 7 years. Regrettably the record does not show to where he was deported, but at that date Australia seems a likely destination. Does any member claim him as an ancestor?

A sentence of transportation was also handed down to Peter Parrott, born about 1789 and tried in Bedford in 1834 on a charge of receiving stolen goods. He had a previous conviction for felony. The judge was not given to leniency and Peter was sentenced to transportation for life.

Although the justice of the times seems harsh to us there were numerous instances of acquittal. 19 year old Rhoda Parrott was found not guilty at the Old Bailey of child stealing in 1817, as was 18 year old Emma Parrott, tried in Middlesex in April 1822 on a charge of larceny.

 

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  A P*RR*TT PHOTO GALLERY  

Our 2010 Annual General Meeting will be held in the Perrett stronghold of Rowde, Wiltshire.

The lady (left) is Ann Perrett who was born in Rowde over 200 years ago - on 19 Jan 1804 to be precise. Her father and mother were, respectively, Henry Perrett, born 1780 and Hannah Blanchard, born 1785. On 29 Oct 1831 she married Joseph Maslen in Madron, Cornwall. Despite this excursion into the south west of England, Ann spent many years of her life living in the village of All Cannings, near Devizes, Wiltshire. She died there on 13 October 1876.

Right: George Perrett, born Wincanton 1844, son of John Perrett (1811-1846) and Ann, née Hayter, born 1811.

He married Ann Louisa Weare in April 1870 in Gillingham, Dorset and raised at least 7 children:- Caroline Ann (1871), John Herbert James (1872), Harriet Rose Sarah (1875), George Ernest William (1876), Ada Mabel (1877), Florence Miriam (1880) and Eleanor Blanche (1883). He lived in the Gillingham - Wincanton area of Dorset until he was in his early 40s, then moved to Essex where in 1911 he was described as a ‘retired farmer.’

 

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Last modified: 22 July 2018