Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Allen line: Early Parrish family

I thought I'd be writing about edward Parrish as our earliest documented ancestor in this family, but I'm not sure he belongs to us . Then I thought I'd be writing about John Parrish, who is possibly or maybe probably Edward's son, but you can see the problem.  If John isn't Edward's son, why write about Edward/  And the same problem with John...Is he, or is he not, the father of Humphrey Parrish, who most definitely is our line?  So now that we have doubts in our minds, I'll write just a brief outline of the two possible candidates for our oldest known ancestors, and then we'll learn a little more about Humphrey Parrish. 

Edward was reportedly born in Yorkshire, England about the year 1600 and came to Virginia in 1635on the ship "Hopewell".  He first settled at Elizabeth City where he purchased 200 acres in 1648,but then went to Anne Arundel County, Md, if this is the same Edward Parrish.  In Maryland, he was both a planter and a ship captain in the British Royal Navy, and again, if this is the same Edward Parrish, surveyor general to Lord Baltimore.  He died in Anne Arundel County in April of 1679,

Next is another Edward, born about 1640.  He was married to Clara Judgwyn orJadgwyn.  His birthplace is listed as West River Hundred, Anne Arundel County, Maryland. 

It's possible that the second Edward's son was John Parrish, born 1672 and I have also seen it stated that John was the son of the first Edward mentioned above.  John was born in 1672 at West River Hundred in Anne Arundel County.  Alternately, the John we are seeking was born in 1654 in Anne Arundel County Maryland, the son of the first Edward.  He was married to Elizabeth Belt, the daughter of Humphrey and Margery Cragge Belt. 

It makes sense that this John is the correct one, the son of the first Edward, because he named a son Humphrey, which was not a name previously known in the Parrish family.  Young Humphrey, born in 1680 in Anne Arundel County, somehow and for some reason made his way to Virginia, where he married Mary Walker, daughter of John Walker and Lucy Wood. Since I don't have any documentation for the reasons he left Maryland to go to Virginia,  this part of the story is a little doubtful.  Humphrey may have been a merchant or a sailor, or simply have gone to Virginia on an errand for his family and decided to stay. 

Humphrey and Mary had a son Humphrey born in 1708 in Baltimore, Maryland, or so the story goes.  He may be the one who married Mary Morton.  The younger Humphrey, along with his Mary, had several children, one of whom is Moses Parrish, of whom I have already written (he was a soldier in the French and Indian War, Lord Dunmore's War, and the Revolutionary War).  This Humphrey, and probably his father and perhaps his ancestors, were small time slave owners. 

So if this chronology is correct, Moses was a fifth generation American, (son of Humphrey, son of Humphrey, son of John, son of Edward).  I'd love to find documents that support this line of descent, or that dispute it.  I've read other sites that give different parents and different years of birth, so this is my best guess at lining the family up.  It could very well be wrong.  but even if it's wrong, it gives a sense of who the Parrish family was; they were early settlers in Virginia and they fought for their country.  We can be proud of them, even if we still don't know a lot about them. 

1 comment:

  1. I wish there were better records on the Parrish line so that there could be more definitive answers.

    ReplyDelete

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