Eunice Parsons

  Research Notes:

Saul Eslake notes:
Eunice Parsons was the second daughter (fifth child) of Reuben and Hannah (nee Pacey) Parsons, who arrived in Australia on 19^th January 1838 aboard the barque Layton, together with Reuben's brother Matthew Parsons and his wife Puah (nee Gardiner), and Hannah's brother William Pacey and his wife Esther (nee Beard) and nine other families. They had been sponsored out to New South Wales by their fellow parishioners in Chalford, in the parish of Besley, Gloucestershire, as part of a program which encouraged people displaced by the industrialization of the textile industry to emigrate.

As you know, Matthew and Puah Parsons were my great-great-grandparents, on my mother's side.

Reuben was born at Chalford Lynch, Gloucestershire, in 1806, the eldest son of John Parsons (1777-1841) and his wife Grace (nee Gardiner) (1783-1838). Hannah Pacey was born in 1814. Reuben and Hannah were married on 1^st October 1833 - almost three years after his brother Matthew, who was four years younger than him.

After arriving in Sydney, the families on the Layton (including both Parsons families) were employed by Hannibal Hawkins Macarthur, nephew of sheep pioneer (and Rum Rebel) John Macarthur, at 'Camden Park'. The Parsons brothers and their families stayed there until at least 1839. In 1844 they both arrived in Wollongong. Matthew worked as a carpenter and shingler, and Reuben as a tinsmith.

Reuben and Hannah had six children - Peninah (1839-1923), Adin (1843-1928), Aquila (1846-1893), Enos (1848 - 1908), Eunice (1849-1937) and Johanna (1851 - ?). Aquila Parsons married Sarah Murphy in 1867, inherited his father's business, and passed it on to his son Joseph Henry ('Harry') Parsons; Aquila was on the Wollongong Council for 12 years from 1877, including two years (1882-83) as Mayor.

  Noted events in her life were:

• connection. The connection between Tracy Hancock & myself is as follows:

Tracy Hancock (1979)
Her father is Ian Hancock (1949)
His father was Hilton Hancock who died in 1968 & who married Phyllis Dobbie (1913)
Her father was Hugh Dobbie (1887)
His father was David Dobbie & he also had Elizabeth Dobbie (1889) who married Arthur Tate (1881)
His father was William Tate who died in 1905 & who married Eunice Parsons (1849)
Her father was * Reuben Parsons (1805)
His father was John Parsons (1777) & he also had Matthew Parsons (1809)
He had Henry Parsons (1849)
He had Leland Parsons (1892)
He had Lois Parsons (1937) who married Kevin Nelson (1939)
His father was Laurence Nelson (1918) who married Doris Brannigan (1919)
Her father was William Brannigan (1897) who married Thomasina Emery (1899)
Her father was John Emery (1867) who married Phoebe Davies (1876)
Her father was Joseph Davies (1852) & he also had George Arthur Davies (1894)
He had Colin Davies (1925)
He had me - Robyn Bray (nee Davies) (1950)

& Tracy Hancock's link to Robert through Dawes line is as follows:

* Reuben Parsons (1805) - the common link between Robert and myself
He had Enos Parsons (1847) who married Emma Dawes (1847)
Her father was George Dawes (1802)
His father was Aaron Daw (1779) & he also had Edward Bannister Dawes (1813)
He had James H. Dawes (1843)
He had Annie Florence Dawes (1873) who married Arthur Augustus Bray (1869)
He had Albert Alan Bray (1896)
He had Robert Alfred Bray (1920)
He had Robert Arthur Bray (1947) who married me - Robyn Bray (nee Davies) (1950)

Eunice married Willliam Paris Tate on 18 Feb 1873 in Methodist Church, Wollongong, NSW Australia. (Willliam Paris Tate was born circa 1840 in Paris France and died on 16 Jul 1905 in Oakdean, NSW Australia.)