"THE OLDEST RESIDENT."
The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser Saturday 8 July 1876 p 47 Article
"We find it announced in the Bathurst Times that a Mrs. Parker, who is beiieved to have been the oldest resident in the colony at the time of her death, departed this life a short time ago. The deceased was almost a centenarian, having reached her 98th year in March last. She arrived in this colony in the ship William Pitt in 1804, only sixteen years after the foundation of the colony, the British standard having first been raised on the shores of Port Jackson in 1788. The
deceased's husband, who has been dead about thirty years, was a soldier in one of the first detachments sent out to New South Wales. Mrs. Parker had resided in the neighbourhood of Bathurst for some fifty-six years, and crossed the Blue Mountains before Bathurst was in existence, beyond its mere name. We are informed that, including children, grand children, and great-grandchildren, the deceased's descendants at present number about 120."
It appears that the Bathurst Times (newspaper quoted) copies have not survived for so the exact date of the article is unknown. There is no record of an Ann Parker in NSW Deaths in 1875/1876 or any Parker female registered at Bathurst in those years. Presuming that the family provided the details for the paper they have obviously continued with the myth of their father serving in the regiment BUT they have correctly identified the "William Pitt" as the ship on which Ann arrived although missing the date by two years. Given that the article about the death of their daughter Ann Eades (May 1896)states that her mother died twenty years earlier the family seem to be pretty good with dates but the the only burial of a James Parker around the 30 years earlier mark is in 1848. This James Parker was aged 88 and he was buried in the Roman Catholic church St James Sydney. There does not appear to be a probate record for either James or Ann. 56 years residence at Bathurst is an exaggeration as the family were living at Windsor for the 1825 Muster. The 1828 Census does give "Atliss" (sic) as the name of the ship of arrival for James Parker in 1802. He has an Absolute Pardon with children born in the colony and the whole family is noted as being protestant. Lorraine