OLD PLYMOUTH . UK
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WHO WAS WHO IN OLD PLYMOUTH

JOHN ALEXANDER PARLBY (1769-1849)

John Alexander Parlby was the youngest son of Thomas Parlby (1727-1802) and his wife, Mrs Lydia Parlby, and was baptised at the Ancient Parish Church of Stoke Damerel on June 26th 1769.

Mr John Alexander Parlby married Miss Letitia Hall, daughter of Mr Humphrey Hall, at the Anglican Church of Holyrood, Southampton, on September 29th 1792.  Letitia had been baptised in Plymouth on December 6th 1772.  Her father owned the estates at Sampfor Spiney and Manadon, in Devon.

Humphrey Hall had two daughters, possibly twins as they were both baptised at Pennyctoss Chapel on December 6th 1772, Jane first and Letitia second.  They inherited Manadon (and Sampford Spinety) upon the death of their father in 1801.  When Jane Humphrey died unmarried and was buried at Pennycross on January 5th 1822, Letitia inherited the whole.  In the Tithe Apportionment for 1839/40 she is shown as the landowner and Mr Parlby only as an occupier.

Exactly what John and Letitia were doing at Portsmouth is not known.  Was John sent there on behalf of his father to supervise work at Portsmouth Dockyard or simply to occupy an estate bought by his father?  And why was Letitia, born in Plymouth, now in Hampshire?  The link has to be the Royal Navy.  Their only child, John Hall Parlby, was baptised at South Stoneham, Southampton, Hampshire, so she clearly had nothing to do with Manadon at that time.  It has been said that John Hall Parlby arrived at Manadon in 1833 but it is more likely to have been a decade earlier following the death of Miss jane Humphrey.

What is certain is that John Hall Parlby made no attempt to build on the success of his father, after whose death in 1802 the business collapsed.  His older brother, and heir to their father's estates, James Templer Parlby, did follow in his father's footsteps but joined the Corps of Engineers and went off to India, where he became a Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant at Berhampore, Bengal, and died on December 1st 1826.

As with every other landowner, Mr John Alexander Parlby became a Justice of the Peace for the County of Devonshire.

Mrs Letitia Parlby died in 1848 at the age of 75 years and was buried in the churchyard at Saint Pancras Church on June 7th 1848.  Mr John Alexander Parlby died at Manadon House on April 2nd 1849 and was also buried in the churchyard at Saint Pancras Church on April 9th 1849.  The estates then passed to their only son, Mr John Hall Parlby.