Faith Boyes née Newlyn (1782 to 1860)

Faith Newlyn was Sidney Parsons’ mother’s paternal grandmother. She was the wife of John Boyes of Owslebury.

Faith was born in the London suburb of Clapham in 1782 but her ancestors had come from the villages of Tichborne and Compton near Winchester in Hampshire.

Her father William Newlyn grew up in Compton near Winchester in Hampshire, in central southern England. He came from a family of respectable yeoman who had lived in that part of Hampshire for centuries. As a young man William lived and worked in Clapham in London and while he was there he married Faith’s mother, Jane Elkins, who came from Owslebury, a village close to Compton.

Faith was baptised at Stockwell Chapel in the parish of St. Mary at Lambeth in London on the 25^th of August 1782.

The drawing on the left shows the chapel as it would have appeared at the time Faith was baptised there.

Faith’s father William moved back to Hampshire while she was still a young girl and became a farmer in Owslebury, near Winchester, where his father John Newlyn had land.

Faith was her parents’ second child and she was named after her father’s youngest sister. She had an older brother called William, younger brothers called John, James, Thomas, Richard and Peter, and a sister called Elizabeth.

Faith’s older brother William was baptised in Lambeth in July 1780 and her youngest brother Peter was baptised in Owslebury in April 1798 when she was about 15 years old.

Her brother William became a farmer in Ash in Surrey but his children were baptised in Upham, near Owslebury. Her brothe John became a labourer and eventually died in a workhouse in Portsmouth. James married in Alverstoke in Hampshire and became a Farm Bailiff in nearby Titchfield. Thomas was at first a timber merchant and farmer in Upham but then he moved to Marylebone in London where he worked as a surveyor. Elizabeth was baptised in 1791 but nothing more is known of her. Richard died in 1808 when he was only 14 years old. Faith’s youngest brother Peter moved to Lambeth in London and there he married Sarah Elkins in 1824. They had no children and Sarah died a few years later. Peter became a minister of religeon and married again before eventuallu settling in Chalfont St.Giles in Buckinghamshire where he helped found a Building Society.

To read more about Faith’s brothers and sisters go to her father William Newlyn’s web page.

In 1799 when Faith’s father William’s elder brother Thomas died William inherited a substantial amount of land which had been owned by Faith’s grandfather John Newlyn.

Faith married John Boyes in Owslebury 1803 on the 7^th of September 1803. John was a farmer who lived in the same parish as Faith. He came from the small hamlet of Hensting at the western end of the parish where he lived near the head of a small lake called Fisher’s Pond, a well known local landmark. Faith lived in Hensting for the rest of her life.

Faith and John Boyes had ten children. Their son William was Sidney Parsons’ grandfather.

Information about John and Faith’s children can be found by followng this link — John Boyes and Faith Newlyn’ children.

As the wife of a yeoman farmer, Faith must have led a relatively comfortable life, but that lifestyle was put at risk in 1830 when her husband became involved in one of the notorious “Swing Riots” which swept across the south of England. John met an angry mob of farm workers and, rather incautiously, tried to help them secure the agreement of other landowners to pay them higher wages. Some people regarded him as a class traitor - he was himself a landowner and employer - and he was tried with the rioters. The case was discussed in parliament and reported in The Times. When John was found innocent, the Attorney General ordered a re-trial. This time he was convicted and sentenced to be transported for seven years. According to the rules of the Manor of Marwell, of which John’s farm was a part, having been convicted of a felony the farm should have reverted to the manor, leaving Faith and their children homeless. That did not occur, probably due to the kindness of Lady Mildmay who seems not to have proceeded with the repossession.

Many people believed that John’s actions on the day of the riot had calmed the mob and helped avoid the need for military action. The newspapers were sympathetic to Faith’s plight as can be seen from the following August 1833 report in the Hampshire Telegraph :

“John Boyes has left a wife and ten children to deplore his loss, who, to the agony and distress arising from having under such circumstances lost their protector, have from the time of his conviction been kept in a state of cruel suspense as to the security of their little property.”

Several petitions were presented to the Home Secretary, asking for the release of John Boyes, and in 1835 he was given a free pardon and returned to England, his wife, his family and his farm.

After John’s return he and Faith seem to have lived a quiet life on their farm until over twenty years later, in 1856, John died. Faith died of pneumonia four years later, on Christmas day 1860, with her son Edward in attendance. She was buried in the churchyard at Owslebury on new year’s day.

John Boyes and Faith Newlyn’s children

John Boyes and his wife Faith had six sons and four daughters, all of whom were born and brought up within the parish of Owslebury.

John and Faith’s first child, John, was born in 1805. Their last, Anna, in 1824.

William was the first of their children to survive childhood. His daughter Harriett, whom he had with his second wife Harriet was the mother of Sidney Parsons and a great-grandmother of the present author.

To read about John & Faith’s children follow this link — The Children of John Boyes and Faith Newlyn.

Ancestors of Faith Newlyn

Parents
Father — William Newlyn
Mother — Jane Elkins

Grandparents
Grandfather — John Newlyn
Grandmother — Mary Complyn

Grandfather — Francis Elkins
Grandmother — Jane Howard

Great-grandparents
Great-grandfather — A member of the Newlyn family in Tichborne
Great-grandmother —unknown

Great-grandfather — John Complyn
Great-grandmother — Elizabeth Goldfinch

Great-grandfather — unknown
Great-grandmother — unknown

Return to Sidney Parsons’ Ancestors

You are free to make use of the information in these web pages in any way that you wish but please be aware that the author, Mike Parsons, is unable to accept respsonsibility for any errors or omissions.

Mike can be contacted at parsonspublic@gmail.com

The information in these web pages comes from a number of sources including: Hampshire County Records Office, Somerset Heritage Centre; Dorset County Records Office; Southampton City Archives; the General Register Office; several on-line newspaper archives; several on-line transcriptions of Parish Register Entries; and several on-line indexes of births, marriages and deaths. The research has also been guided at times by the published work of others, both on-line and in the form of printed books, and by information from personal correspondence with other researchers, for all of which thanks are given. However, all of the information in these web pages has been independently verified by the author from original sources, facimile copies, or, in the case of a few parish register entries, transcriptions published by on-line genealogy sites. The author is aware that some other researchers have in some cases drawn different conclusions and have published information which is at variance from that shown in these web pages.