Nat Gould

Parnell Horobin 1725-1782

Peak Forest Church

Parnell Horobin was born in 1725 at Sheen in Staffordshire, the daughter of William Horobin 1689-1763 and his wife née Hannah Wood.

On 3 December 1743 she was married to John Gould 1717-1784. He was born in 1717 at Sheen in Staffordshire, the son of John Gould 1666-1727 and his wife née Lydia Meakin 1678-1751.

They were married not locally but at Peak Forest in Derbyshire. In the eighteenth century that was a place for clandestine marriages (1). Two of the brothers of Parnell Horobin and a sister (2) also married there (3).

John and Parnell Gould née Horobin had the following children:

Mary Gould. She was born in 1743.

Thomas Gould. He was born in 1746.

George Gould. He was born in 1747.

Lydia Gould. She was born in 1748.

John Gould. He was born in 1749 and died in 1753.

William Gould. He was born in 1750.

Hannah Gould. She was born in 1751.

Joseph Gould. He was born in 1756 and died in 1840. He married Ann Greatorix 1765-1848 on 21 November 1785 at Morton in Derbyshire.

Joshua Gould. He was born in 1756 and died in 1774.

Peter Gould. He was born in 1760 and died in the same year.

Their mother Parnell Gould née Horobin died in 1782 at Narrowdale in Alstonefield parish in Staffordshire.

Her widower John Gould died in 1784 at Sheen.

(1) From 1728 the chapel attracted many couples wishing to marry with minimum formality. The minister there could grant an immediate licence. Eloping to Peak Forest was not without its dangers, however. The district was wild and lonely. Apart from the chance of being overtaken by aggrieved parents, there was the risk of being robbed on the journey. One couple was brutally murdered by robbers in the Winnats Pass. The register records the Sheen origin of William Horobin and Elizabeth Derbyshire. Thankfully they made the journey safely.
(2) They were William Horobin who married Elizabeth Derbyshire on 26 February 1748, Marie Horobin who was married to John Wheeldon on 21 April 1750, and Joseph Horobin who married Deborah Downes on 30 September 1752.
(3) The chapel had been founded by the formidable Christian, Countess of Devonshire, a Scots aristocrat descended from Robert the Bruce. She defied the Roundheads during the Civil Wars, entirely unscathed. Discovering that the earl’s lands included an area at remote Peak Forest outside any bishop’s jurisdiction, she had the chapel built and dedicated to “Saint Charles King and Martyr”.