A History of the Harris & Pearson Families

Kindly Contributed by Steve Pearson

The Parrish Family

The early records of this family indicate a fairly nomadic existence. Thomas, the father of Phoebe Parrish who married Joseph Pearson, was born in Oldbury in 1744. His father, John was born in 1708 or 1709. The place of his birth is unknown, but in later times he lived in Halesowen, where a large number of other families with the same surname existed, and then in Madeley, near Telford, before finally settling in Foleshill, Warwickshire, where he died in 1784. One of John's sons, William, is the ancestor of John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister.

John's wife, Phebe Jeston, although the connection is not proven, was almost certainly a member of a small, but apparently wealthy, Old Swinford family, also spelled Jesson, remembered locally by a number of street/ road names spelled Jesson or Jeston, and in Dudley the now defunct 'Jesson's' School.

Thomas Parrish moved briefly to Old Swinford before settling in Brierley Hill. Although he became bankrupt a few years before his death, he had established himself as a successful glassmaker, at one time having a connection with the 'Old Dial' Glassworks - presumably near the present day public house of the same name.

Many of Thomas's descendants continued in the glass industry, and were, throughout the nineteenth century, recorded along the length of Brettell Lane, and in nearby Audnam and Wordsley, as having glassworks, many of the junior members of the family working as glass cutters or engravers.

One of Thomas's grandsons, also Thomas (born 1800 in Brierley Hill), also established a business in Bristol, where he and his sons were an instrumental part of the celebrated 'Bristol Blue Glass' industry.