1891. 6 Mill Street\u00a0<\/strong><\/p> William Parkin, 65, railway porter, born Crosby. Elizabeth, 62, born Penrith, and daughters Sarah Jane, 25, and Mary Hannah, 21, who are (like so many single women in those days) recorded as dressmakers. Sarah was still with her now-widowed father ten years later, at the same house.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In 1881 and 1871, the family were at number 4 Mill Street. William was a railway porter, and we learn there were older children John, William and Margaret, as well as Sarah Jane and Mary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The headstone \u2018covers\u2019 Sarah Jane, who died in 1910, aged 44. Mary Hannah married railway supervisor William Robson on November 18, 1901. <\/p>\n\n\n\n William Parkin married Elizabeth Atkinson in 1852. Her surname is too common to be sure of more, without ordering certificates, but the gravestone tells us she had a sister Margaret. There\u2019s a possible match for them in Drover\u2019s Lane in 1841, with what looks like a mother Margaret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Parkins had lived in Great Dockray previously. 1861 has William as a railway porter, with Elizabeth, John and William, and a daughter Elizabeth Ann. Who may have left home for domestic service by 1871.<\/p>\n\n\n\n William Parkin was the son of Joseph Parkin and his wife Elizabeth. He was already a railway porter at 25, when he was living with his parents and siblings in Wilson\u2019s Row, off Middlegate. Dad Joseph was a \u2018boots\u2019 at the George Inn, a pretty humble job. They had a lodger to help support their family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 1895 reports on his daughter say he worked for the L & N W Railway, and had charge of the cattle lading department at Penrith Station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1863, the family home in Great Dockray was among a number of properties there up for auction. But the family stayed on a while at least, as in November 1864, they announced the sad loss of a baby son, Henry, who had been born in the March quarter of that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1866, William Parkin was called to court to give evidence in the case of a cattle dealer called William Waugh, who was charged with removing six cattle without a certificate during an outbreak of cattle plague. William Parkin has seen the defendant with some cattle in the station yard on the morning in question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Working as a cattle truckman, he was involved in an accident at Penrith Railway Station in December 1887. One animal swerved, jamming his right arm between it and the gate post, breaking it in two places below the elbow. A Dr Thompson attended him, but it must have cost him some time off work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We know from the gravestone that daughter Margaret had died before all of them, in 1895, aged 34. The story is a tragic one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In June 1895, it was reported that Margaret Parkin had been missing for several days. She\u2019d been \u2018in delicate health\u2019 after a severe attack of flu, and staying at home. But she\u2019d improved in recent weeks and had returned to Langwathby, where she worked as a cook for John Watson Nelson, of Eden Bank. Two of her sisters had walked there with her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On Sunday, June 16, 1895, Margaret Parkin had set out to walk the five miles or so home to Penrith. A fellow servant thought she look delicate and advised against her walking so far, but she made light of it and said she\u2019d turn back if she felt tired. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She was seen to pass over Eden Bridge\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her family weren\u2019t expecting her, so it was Mr Nelson who raised the alarm on June 17, when she hadn\u2019t returned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n John Watson Nelson said she was of excellent character and cheerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Police issued a description: blue eyes, black hair, slender figure, about 5ft 4ins or 5ft 5in tall, wearing a light blue dress and a black hat trimmed with blue, and carrying an umbrella. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The report of June 22 is a sad one. Margaret Parkin had been found drowned in Edenhall Pond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It fills out her story a little: she\u2019d worked as a cook in Manchester for five years, returning home at the start of 1895 after scalding her foot in an accident. And then she\u2019d caught flu. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There had been a number of search parties looking for her, with her brother John coming home from Manchester to join them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n John and brother William Parkin (see footnote) were among the search party who found her. One of the party, Charles Dawson Bailiff, found an umbrella near the water\u2019s edge. The water was too discoloured to see anything, but Sergeant Bremner had a boat rowed out and its occupants saw a dress floating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The inquest heard poor Margaret was found drowned in about four feet of water. She was fully dressed, including her hat and gloves, and had money in her purse. There was no sign of foul play, and no way she could have fallen in accidentally. The pond wasn\u2019t on her route home and was some way off the highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was no note, and witnesses who\u2019d seen her that day and the day before had found her in good spirits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The coroner said it was quite common for people to suffer \u2018depression and strange fancies\u2019 after a bout of influenza. They could only suppose she\u2019d suffered such an attack of depression after leaving Langwathby and \u2018in that moment of insanity, she destroyed herself\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The jury found a verdict that she drowned herself while temporarily insane. <\/p>\n\n\n\n William and Elizabeth Parkin had a son called William. Born about 1860, he was briefly (1898-1901) the landlord of the Blue Bell Inn, Little Dockray. While he is no relation to me at all, because of my connections to the pub, a photo of it with William Parkin junior standing outside hangs on the wall on my landing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n This post is one of a series on people buried at Beacon Edge, above Penrith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Others include publican Thomas Dixon<\/a> and the local bonesetters<\/a>, the Dennison family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Charles Gilder<\/a>, a yeast merchant. And William Weight<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The gravestone of William Parkin and his wife Elizabeth has an anchor carved into it, above their names. Which suggests some maritime connection \u2013 despite Penrith being a long way from the sea. But in this series of posts on people buried at Beacon Edge Cemetery, the only connection with water is a tragic one. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[399,186,166],"class_list":["post-2103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beacon-edge","tag-penrith","tag-suicide"],"yoast_head":"\nA life by the railway<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0A little more on William Parkin<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A family tragedy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Lamentable suicide<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The inquest<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
William Parkin junior<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/William-Parkin-junior.jpg\")
Beacon Edge Cemetery<\/h2>\n\n\n\n