• History of Cemetery
• Location/Plans
• Notable people
• Grimsley gravestones
• News
• Burials A–Z
• Current Work
• Photographs
• Restoring a grave
• Contact/Search

John ARCHER (1833–1891)
His wife Mrs Sophia Anne ARCHER, née Sheard (1824–1898)
Their daughter Mrs Mary Sophia Ada Sheard PARROTT, née Archer (1868–1924)
St Giles section: Row 8, Grave B27

John Archer was born in Oxford in 1833 and baptised at St Michael's Church on 20 February. He was the eldest son of the the brewer John Archer senior (born in Oxford in c.1804) and Frances Leaver (born in Westminster, London in c.1808). For more about his parents and thirteen siblings, see the grave of his brothers Edward & William Archer. At the time of the 1841 census John (8) was living with his parents and six of his siblings in Market Street. He moved with them briefly to St Giles's Street and then by 1848 to St Aldate's Street. The 1851 census shows him as a young cooper of 18, still living at home. He was admitted free on 10 October 1856. At the time of the 1861 census John's parents were living in Isis House in St Aldate's with eight of their children, but John (18) is hard to find.

Sophia Anne Sheard was born in Oxford in 1824 and baptised at St Aldate's Church on 6 December. She was the daughter of Lawrance Wyatt Sheard of All Saints parish and Mary Ann Tubb of St Aldate's, who were married at St Aldate's Church on 20 March 1823. They had two other children baptised at that church: John Tubb Sheard (1823, buried there 1826) and Marianne (or Mary Ann) Sheard (1827). Sophia's father was a farmer and grazier in St Aldate's parish. He died at the age of 35 in 1829 and was buried in St Aldate's churchyard on 31 May, and on 1 October 1837 at St Aldate's Church her mother married her second husband, the widower Benjamin Castle, who was a servant at Christ Church. At the time of the 1841 census Sophia was living in St Aldate's Street with her mother Mary Ann, her stepfather Benjamin Castle (who was now a dairyman amd had probably taken over the land of his wife's first husband), and her older stepsister Elizabeth Castle, plus a servant. In 1851 Sophia (26) and her sister Marianne (23) were still living in St Aldate's Street with their mother Mary Ann (55), their stepfather Benjamin Castle (66), and their stepsister Elizabeth Castle (31), plus a servant. Sophia's stepfather Benjamin Castle died at the age of 75 and was buried in St Aldate's churchyard on 25 May 1858, and in 1861 Sophia (36) and her sister Marianne (33) were living at 77 St Aldate's Street with their widowed mother Mary Castle (66), who was described as “Grazier & dairy”, and they employed a cook and a housemaid. Sophia's mother Mary Ann Castle died at the age of 1865 and was buried in St Aldate's churchyard on 1 February 1865.

In the second quarter of 1865 in the Wantage registration district, John Archer married Sophia Anne Sheard. Sophia was aged 40 at the time of the wedding and they had just one child:

• Mary Sophia Ada Sheard Archer, known as Ada (born in Oxford on 18 February 1868 and baptised at St Aldate's Church on 18 March).

John appears to have run the business inherited by Sophia's mother, as at their daughter's baptism in 1868 he was described as a dairyman. Sophia's only sister Marianne died at the age of 42 in July 1870, and presumably Sophia then had sole ownership of the land that had been owned by her father Lawrance Wyatt Sheard.

At the time of the 1871 census John Archer (38), described as a farmer of 90 acres employing five men and one boy, was living at 77 St Aldate's Street with his wife Sophia (45), their daughter Ada (3), and two servants.

By the time of the 1881 census John (48) had retired and was living at 3 Park Villas, at the south end of the Banbury Road, with his wife Sophia (55) and their daughter Ada (13). (Park Villas was constructed in 1847–8, and comprised the current houses at 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, and 19 Banbury Road, with No. 21 added in 1879.)

At the time of the 1891 census John (57) was living at 15 Banbury Road (probably the same house as before, now part of Oxford University IT Services) with his wife Sophia (66, but recorded as 63) and their daughter Ada (22).

John Archer died later that year:

† John Archer died at 15 Banbury Road at the age of 57 on 7 October 1891 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 12 October (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles's Church).

His death announcement in Jackson’s Oxford Journal read simply, “Oct. 7, at 15, Banbury-road, Oxford, John Archer, aged 57 years.” There was an announcement about his funeral in the same edition (10 October 1891):

The funeral of the late Mr. John Archer will take place on Monday, in St. Sepulchre’s Cemetery, at three o’clock. The first portion of the service will be read in St. Aldate’s Church at 2.15 p.m.

Mrs Archer died in 1898:

† Mrs Sophia Anne Archer née Sheard died at 15 Banbury Road at the age of 73 [recorded as 70] on 7 March 1898 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 11 March (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles's Church).

Her daughter Ada was married the following year:

• On 19 September 1899 at St Giles's Church, (Mary Sophia) Ada Sheard Archer married George Richard Parrott, a gentleman of 34 Wellington Square, who was born in Cowley in 1859, the son of the gentleman George Thomas Parrott.

Ada had just one child: George Archer Parrott, born in Ickford, Buckinghamshire in 1900 and baptised there on 21 December.

At the time of the 1901 census Ada Archer (32, but recorded as 27) and George (41), who had private means and had no occupation, were living at The Hollies in Ickford, Buckinghamshire with their son George (eight months). Their niece Leah Webb (26) was working as their nursemaid, and they employed two other servants (a lady's help and a stable-boy).

At the time of the 1911 census Ada (39) and George (51) were living in Old Marston with their son George Archer Parrott (10) and two servants: a mother's help, and a handyman/gardener.

Ada was living at Strathpelfe, Tiddington, Oxfordshire when she died in Great Milton in 1924:

† Mrs Ada Sophia Mary Sheard Parrott, née Archer died at Chilworth, Great Milton at the age of 56 on 19 November 1924 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 24 November (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles's Church).

Her effects came to £9,835 7s. 2d., and her husband was her executor.

Ada's husband George Richmond Parrott's home was at the Clarendon Hotel in Cornmarket, Oxford when he died at the Warneford Hospital in Headington at the age of 74 on 15 August 1933. His funeral was held at St Giles's Church on 17 August, but it is unclear where he was buried: he may have been cremated. His effects came to £21,741 11s. 11d., and his executor was his son George, who was described as having no occupation.

---

The only son of Mrs Ada Parrott (and the only grandson of John & Sophia Anne Archer)

• George Archer Parrott (born 1900) may be the George A. Parrott who married Maud Beatrice Bayliss in Oxford in the third quarter of 1935. If this is the right couple, they had five children: Anthony Gerald Vesey Parrott (Oxford, 1935, baptised at Marston, David W. V. Parrott (Oxford 1938), Ian M. Parrott (Ploughley district, 1940), Gordon A. Parrott (Oxford, 1946), and Clifford R. Parrott (Oxford 1952). In 1936 the Parrotts were living at 41 Ouseley Close, New Marston. George Archer Parrott died in Oxford at the age of 80 near the beginning of 1981.