The Parsonses of Sabden (Part 2 William Parsons Calico Printer)

William Parsons married Mary Wilkinson in St Mary and All Saints parish church in Whalley in 1802.The couple lived in Sabden and had ten children of whom seven are named on William and Mary's gravestone in the Baptist Chapel burial ground.

Grave of William Parsons and family in the Sabden Baptist graveyard

How sudden and how awfull was the stroke

By which the slender thread of Life was broke

Oh may this admonition teach us all

How frail is Man how unforeseen His fall

The Sabden Calico Printworks was established in 1793 and textile printers came from the surrounding area to work there. William was a Calico Printer and may well have left Bolton by Bowland to find work at the Sabden Printworks.

The first church to be built in Sabden was the Baptist Church in 1797 and this was known as 'The Church at Pendle Hill'. Baptisms took place the following year and in 1802 William and Mary's first child John was baptised at the church.

The old Baptist chapel no longer exists but the graveyard remains and buried there are a number of Parsons families including William and Mary and many of their children.

Sabden Baptist original church
(courtesy of Sabden Baptist Church website)

The Sabden Baptist graveyard today

Next time: Thomas Parsons Cotton Manufacturer