Sidney Alfred Parsons and his Ancestors

Thomas Diaper (died 1796), Innkeeper of Hamble

Thomas Diaper’s family connection to Sidney Parsons is as follows. Thomas’ daughter Mary was Sidney Parsons’ great-grandmother. Mary’s daughter Harriet Slade married William Boyes and their daughter Harriett married the Southampton publican John Parsons who was Sidney Parsons’ father.

Thomas Diaper was ultimately descended from the Diapers of Itchen ferry. Itchen ferry was a village in Hampshire near the mouth of the River Itchen where it enters the Solent. Ferries crossed the river to the centre of Southampton which was immediatel opposite. The village had strong maritime connections; many of the men were seafarers, fishermen or boatmen and most of the rest were involved in supplying, building or repairing boats and ships. Itchen Ferry was destroyed by bombing during WWII.


Although the Diaper family were concentrated in Itchen Ferry they were also to be found in surrounding towns and villages, especially along the shore of the Solent, and in the middle of the 18th century there were several Diapers living in Portsmouth, about fifteen miles to the south-east of Itchen Ferry. For example, George Diaper who in the early 1760s served an apprenticeship with the Admiralty as a shipwright, left them after qualifying, and then returned to them in 1777.

Thomas was very likely born in Portsmouth in about the year 1760.

The map on the left, which dates from 1751, shows the places where Thomas lived. Itchen Ferry, near Southampton, is shown as “Itching”. Hamble, where he lived for most of his life, is near the centre of the map.





In 1780 Thomas’ girlfriend Catherine Rice, who was barely 16 years old, fell pregnant and he married her. The wedding was in St. Thomas’ church on the 8th of July. Seven months later the child was born. She was called Elizabeth and her parents baptised her on the 30th of March , also in St. Thomas’ church.

St. Thomas’ church, shown to the right, became a cathedral in 1927 when the newly created Diocese of Portsmouth was split from Winchester. The church would have looked rather different when Thomas and Catherine were married there; it was substantially enlarged after being elevated to the status of a cathedral. The work was not completed until 1991.

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A few years after they married Thomas and Catherine left Portsmouth and moved to Hamble where they lived for the rest of their lives. Their second child, William Vaun, was baptised in Hamble in January 1784 but tragically he died about a week later.

Hamble (or Hamble-le-Rice) is a village on the shore of the Solent about five miles south-east of Itchen Ferry. Hamble, like Itchen Ferry, had a strong maritime tradition — the warship HMS Elephant, which was built in Hamble in 1786 while Thomas was living there, was Lord Nelson’s flagship at the battle of Copenhagen.

Thomas became an inn-keeper in Hamble where he kept the Bull’s Head, but he maintained his links with the sea and owned a fishing vessel called The Kitty.

In 1796, when Thomas was only about forty four years old, he fell ill and died. His eldest child was still only fifteen years old and his youngest was less than two. Before he died Thomas was able to prepare his will:


Will of Thomas Diaper of Hamble, 1796
In the name of God Amen
I Thomas Diaper of the Parish of Hamblerice in the County of Southampton Inn Keeper Being in a Sound Disposing Mind and Memory do make this my last Will and Testament in Manner and Form following — That is to say first and principally I recommend my Soul to God who gave it and my Body to the Earth to be decently Buried at the discretion of my Executrix hereafter Named And as to my Temporal Estate and Effects I dispose of as herein mentioned
That is to say my Stock in Trade my Cash in Hand Cash due to me at time of my decease my Household Furniture Stock of goods of Every kind whatsoever and wheresoever together with my Fishing Smack call’d the Kitty — I give and bequeath equally betwixt my living wife Catherine Diaper and my Dear Children that is to say Elizabeth Diaper Thomas Diaper James Diaper Catherine Diaper Mary Diaper Rosetta Diaper and William Diaper
And for the due performance of this my said last Will and Testament I do hereby Appoint my loving Wife Catherine Diaper to be my whole and sole Executrix this is my Will and desire as long as my living Wife Catherine continue in my Name — But in case my Wife should marry another Husband then my Will and Desire is that my property of every kind whatsoever and wheresoever be divided betwixt my wife and Children in Equal Shares
And in case my loving Wife should Marry my Will and desire is tht my Two Eldest Children Namely Elizabeth and Thomas Diaper should be at Liberty to Choose Trustees to Manage this Business Agreeable to my Will in behalf of themselves and their younger Brothers and Sisters — And in case of the Death of One or more of my Children my Will and Desire is that the part belonging to the Deceased be divided equally betwixt those that are Living
  Signed Sealed and Delivered
  this first day of April 1796
  in my presence and in the presence of us
      William Ayling
      Richd Lock
 

Thomas Diaper was buried in Hamble on the 27th of June 1796.

Children of Thomas and Catherine Diaper




Thomas and his wife Catherine had eight children — Elizabeth, Thomas, William Vaun, James, Catherine, Mary, Rosetta and William.

Their third child, William Vaun, died within a week of being born.

Mary was born at the end of 1790 or the beginning of 1791. When she and her sister Rosetta were young ladies they moved to Alverstoke near Gosport on the western shore of Portsmouth Harbour. (There were other Diapers in Alverstoke at the time who might well have been relatives.) Both girls got married in Alverstoke — Mary married John Slade, a shipwright who had been born in Millbrook, a village to the west of Southampton, and Rosetta married a man from Hamble called John Grace. Both couples then moved to Hamble to live. Mary and John Slade became great-grandparents of Sidney Parsons.



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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.