John PARKS is identified as the father of John PARKS on his son's wedding certificate. Like his son and grandson after him, he was a potter.
Based on census returns and his death certificate, he was born in about 1790/1, but based on his age of 60 at his death in September 1854 he was born 1794/5. A John PARKS was born on 7 Apr 1790 and baptized on 4 Aug 1790 by John and Sarah PARKS of Hanley, however a John and Sarah PARKES baptized another John in August 1795 suggesting that the first John died in infancy, although no associated burial has been found.
The fact that John's eldest was called Henry and his grandson was called Henry John, hints at his father was called Henry, but no records have been published that fit that guess.
John PARKS married a Susannah TAYLOR on 16 Jan 1815 at Norton In The Moors, Stafford which is in Stoke-on-Trent. A grandchild named Susannah is circumstantial evidence that this is correct.
This John and Susannah baptized Henry (1815) and John (1822) in Hanley. The timing of Henry's birth suggests that the marriage was unplanned. There are no other published baptismal records but there are other children listed in later census records.
Susannah died in Hanley in 1833, aged 37.
In 1841 John is aged 45-49 living with his son John PARKS, aged 19, and three other children: Thirza (15), Harriet(12) and Mary(9). Presumably these three children were John and Susannah's.
On 11 Nov 1844 John's daughter Thirza, a potter aged 22, married Jonas MAYER, a potter aged 20, the son of Thomas MAYER, a collier, in Bucknall. Thomas had been living on Chell Street four doors from the family in 1841. On Thirza's marriage record, her father is named as John PARKES. He was described as "Idle".
In 1851, a widowed John PARKES, aged 60, "joiner", is boarding with Sarah Shingler and her children on the High Street, Hanley. The "joiner" profession does not fit though, especially as everyone else in the house is a potter. Perhaps this was a job he had taken up temporarily. Or it may be a forgotten local term for joining two pottery components. There are no other John PARK(E)S within 20 miles of Hanley of the right age. Given that John's youngest daughter, Mary, was living next door to him and working as a servant, then it is safe to believe that this was John's residence in 1851.
Two years later Mary married William BROCKMAN, a coal miner from Somerset. On the marriage register, her father was described as a potter and her address was given as 87 Market Street, Hanley. Market Street and High Street meet at Market Square at the very heart of Hanley.
John PARKES, potter, died in Hanley on 15 Jun 1854. He was 60 years old. John was buried four days later. The cause of death given on the certificate by the coroner was "By the visitation of God", a poetic turn of phrase for "unknown causes", and suggests that until that time he enjoyed good health.
