EDWARD and HANNAH DESCENDANT NEWSLETTER
Issue No 4/13
July Meeting ; Marilyn and Terry were hosts of our July meeting including the Annual General
Meeting. We were all made very welcome to their home on the Central Coast. When we discussed what we had achieved in the last 12 months there was some great progress made on our family tree.
Again there is no photo from the meeting as I forgot as well as everyone else. I did take my camera this time but forgot to bring it home. But thanks to Marilyn and Terry it arrived in the mail the following week.
“Edward & Hannah Corner”
On the 30 th
August 1813 Edward and Hannah would have seen their daughter Harriet marry Stephen
Parker at St Matthew’s, Windsor. You would have to assume the church was a wooden structure as the existing St Matthew’s was opened in about 1822. It was the fourth building to carry the St
Matthew’s name.
I have had some research carried out at the National Archives UK on Edward’s time in the Rum
Corp. There is very little available, perhaps the officers in charge did not send too much information to London with them running the sale of rum and the arrest of Governor Bligh and taking control of the Colony. The only real piece of information was that Edward’s first date of pay was the 29th Jan
1800 and he was in Captain McArthur's company,
History in Edward & Hannah’s time
On 17 th August 1801 the Female Orphan School officially opened. The School was founded by
Governor King and housed 31 girls who were taught needlework, spinning, reading and some writing. By May 1803 there were 104 girls at the Orphan School. Reverend Samuel Marsden performed a special ceremony and sermon for the opening. This would have been where in May
1824 Hannah had applied to have Sophia age 3 her granddaughter admitted.
“Quiz”;
What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?
Members Searching History Interesting find from Narelle in NZ
I got "bold" and wrote to Dr. Paul Everill, Archaeologist at Winchester University. He wrote the article on "The Parkers of Heytesbury" (I got that article from your "The Friendship Times"
Newsletter Issue No. 7/12...put in by Irene) I asked Paul if he could put me in touch with Chris
Parker, whom he acknowledged in the article, as the Genealogist. Paul kindly obliged.

Chris kindly emailed me, 26.4.13 and seemed very pleased to make contact with another "Parker" cousin (my John that is). A small world when he told us his sister-in-law, Sally's sister lives at
Penrith NSW. The Pugh’s lived near Penrith in UK.
In May I went to the UK for our first daughter Fiona’s wedding on the 31 st
May, so hoped we could meet up as Fiona lived in Farnborough, Hampshire and Chris said he lived about 40 miles away.
On the 26 th
May we went from Heytesbury, Wiltshire for the day, across to Taunton, Somerset to see my father’s family area, including the Taunton Cemetery, where my g.g.grandfather, John Eales
White was buried. He was the Mayor, and Grand Treasurer of the Masonic Lodge and the Masonic
Brethren built a huge headstone on his grave. He died aged 60, 1855.
We came back via Sutton Veny where a lot of the Parkers are buried, sadly without headstones or unreadable headstones. > This is the graveyard at St. Leonard’s old church at Sutton Veny, Wiltshire, England where some of
The Parkers are buried (no headstones).
Stephen Parker snr. 1749-1817 & wife, Betty d.1815....they are the Parents of Stephen Parker 1772-
1822(Convict) who married Harriet Pugh
St Leonard’s old church graveyard
Then after Sutton Veny we travelled to Salisbury, where we met Chris & Sally Parker in the centre of Salisbury, and later returning to Farnborough - a good day out, about 400km.
Fiona and I also met with Dr. Paul Everill at the Winchester University on Tuesday 28th May 2013.
A very friendly 40ish man, he was hoping to take us to a "dig" and hoped he would make history having another "Parker" (Fiona) on a "dig" but sadly it was raining. So we met him in his office at the University. He showed us a copy of the original letter Dr. Cunnington wrote to the judge to ask to change Stephen Parker's sentence.. which the Judge did do. Stephen was first sentenced to death for stealing a fat pig, and 3 cows!! (maybe he was hungry?)
Fiona & I flew to Ireland to visit the old homes and graves of my mother's family in Co. Kildare.
We also did 2 days sightseeing to Co. Clare in the West of Ireland to the Cliffs of Moher, then back across to Dublin. I loved Ireland and very friendly people.
Thank you Narelle for your story
Chris Parker is a descendent of the same line as Stephen Parker, who became Edward and Hannah’s son-in-law when he married their daughter Harriet.
Founders
The Fellowship of First Fleeters newsletter August/September issue has a biography of Elizabeth
Parker by our member Val. This is now two biographies our group has had published in Founders out of the total of 64 they have.
“Quiz Answer”; all were invented by women

Next Meeting;
The next meeting has now been scheduled for the 14 th
September in Glenbrook and thanks to Narelle
(in NZ) for making contact with Chris Parker who had expressed an interest to meet us when he is in
Sydney, so now he will be attending the meeting .
So I ask that as many as possible attend the meeting to meet Chris.
Regards Ray (August 2013)