William Parke of Anfield Lodge

Partner in Jamaican merchant firms, first with Christopher Burrow and then John Hall, then under William Parke & Co. (q.v.).  Active in Jamaica in the early 1800s and moved to Liverpool at an uncertain date, co-awardee with Richard Hall (q.v.) for several claims in Jamaica and awardee in his own name for several more there.

1. William Parke of Anfield Lodge in the town of West Derby, died 12/08/1837 aged 75. There was a Chancery suit between Emily Airey and John Hall and others all persons claiming to be creditors of William Parke running in 1856. His settlement of lands at Brigham in Cumberland and in West Derby in favour of his daughters was subject in 1857 to challenge by the daughters, viz. Charlotte Hall, wife of John Hall of Park Place Gardens Paddington; Jane Bowstead, wife of Joseph Bowstead of Hyde House Stroud Gloucs.; and Emily Airey, wife of Henry Cookson Airey of Grosvenor place. The settlement dated 09/06/1834 was made by William Parke, John Hall and John Watson deceased.

2.  William Parke of Anfield Lodge, Lancashire, bought Leaths on Buittle estate, Scotland about 1834.

3. Will of William Parke of Anfield Lodge proved 19/09/1837. Under the will he confirmed the settlements he had made for his daughters Charlotte (the wife of John Hall of Liverpool merchant), Jane Parke and Emily Parke. He left £1000 to William Thurnham Parke, the child of his late reputed son Thomas Parke of Kingston; £1000 to William Parke 'my reputed son (and son of Eliza Garsting late of Kingston... deceased'); £500 currency to Evelina Child [sic] Parke, the daughter of Mary Meerham [?] late of Kingston; £1000 to the children of his late brother James Parke of Thurnham near Lancaster; and £250 each to Margaret Calvert and Bella Barton, the daughters of his late sister Fanny Nichol. To William Parke storekeeper and ironmonger of Kingston, 'another of my reputed sons' he left his stores in Kingston and his house there, now or late in the occupation of Sir Joshua Rowe, and forgave the debts of £10644 2s 11d secured by bonds owed by William Parke ironmonger to William Parke the testator. The rest of his estate he left in trust to John Hall, Richard Hall of Bongate Cottage in the county of Westmorland and John Smith of Liverpool grocer for his three daughters as tenants in common [Richard Hall was substituted after John Watson, one of the original trustees, died]. In a codicil he replaced John Smith as trustee and executor with the Reverend Thomas Stanley Bowstead of Liverpool.

4. In 1851 Charlotte Hall aged 45 born Jamaica wife of John Hall 58 (Landowner, retired merchant, Magistrate, DL) was living at 11 Berkeley Square St Augustine Bristol with daughter Elizabeth aged 20 born West Derby Lancs; and Jane 19 and Emily 14 born Walton-on-the-Hill. In 1861 she was living with John Hall at 1 Park Place Gardens Paddington.  For the other sisters, birthplace is shown as unknown for Jane Bowstead (aged 35) in 1851 when she was visiting in Westminster with her husband, and by 1861 she does not appear with her family; Emily Airey is shown as born 'ditto (i.e. Westmoreland), Kingstone', aged 30 in 1851 but then as born Liverpool in 1861.  In 1871, however, Jane Bowstead born Jamaica was visiting her widowed sister Charlotte Hall ('Landowner') at 1 Park Place. It appears that William Parke of Anfield Lodge's son-in-law John Hall was also his partner: John Hall and Charlotte Parke had married in Liverpool in 28/07/1823. John Hall died in 1868 of 1 Park Place Gardens Paddington leaving £12,000. The link with William Parke's co-awardee Richard Hall has not yet been fully clarified.

1. Liverpool Mercury 18/08/1837; London Gazette, Issue 21912, 12/08/1856, p. 2796; London Gazette, Issue 22033, 21/08/1857, p. 2871.

2. P.H.McKerlie 'Lands & their owners - Buittle parish' (1877) [accessed via http://www.buittle-and-kelton-churches.org.uk/buittleHistory/lands.asp 08/02/2011]. According to McKerlie, Parke's daughter Charlotte (married to John Hall of Mollance, parish of Crossmichael) succeeded to Leaths while Jane inherited land at Halkeleaths. 'Mrs John Hall of Mollance' gave birth to a daughter at Cheltenham on 14/04/1847 [Wigtownshire Free Press]: this is consistent with Charlotte Hall's daughter Frances aged 23 at the 1871 census. McKerlie gives Parke correctly once and once as Parker.

3. PROB 11/1884/292. The will is misindexed under 'William Parker' in TNA's online PCC catalogue.

4. 1851, 1861 and 1871 censuses online; Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com, England and Wales, Marriages and Banns, 1538-1940 [database online]; National Probate Calendar 1868.