Butch Cassidy's Father.
 

The infamous outlaw Butch Cassidy had relatives in Accrington,his father came from hereabouts they were the Parker family.
Perhaps Butch and Sundance got away from the Bolivian 100 rifles and enjoyed a retirement in Accy!

Re: Butch Cassidy's Father.
 

There should be in the archives of the Observer an article on this theme, published around the time the film came out

Re: Butch Cassidy's Father.
 

I read this article about Butch Cassidy whilst looking for an old story from the evening telegraph. I'm not sure that I really believe the connection to Charles Dickens
http://www.prospector-utah.com/butch.htm

Re: Butch Cassidy's Father.
 

The connection to Charles Dickens is perfectly accurate. I once did the tree myself. Charles Dicken's father was a cousin of the Parkers. It used to be a bit of an 'in joke' amongst us Accy mormons that we had such illustrious connections in our history. There was a branch of the LDS church here in Accrington at that time, although never a purpose built chapel - then either during or sometime after WWII (I'm not too sure of the date off hand) the Accy saints became part of the Rawtenstall Ward and subsequently a chapel was built on Haslingden Road. Then during the 80s we were detached from Rawtenstall and attached to Blackburn - for a few years we became a separate Accrington Ward and now we're back with Blackburn again.

One of the 'Dickens' tales which usually gets brought up amongst us locals is that when he went to Utah he observed the emmigrants at the docks and remarked upon how punctual, orderly and organised the Mormons were - that's usually followed by one of us looking at ourselves today and saying "What went wrong?" We have this joke about "Mormon time" meaning that we never seem to be able to keep to a schedule. If a party is announced as starting at 7:30pm someone always asks "Is that 7:30pm GMT or 7:30pm Mormon time?" (knowing it will probably get going about 8 o'clock) The only things that do run to time are the Sunday meetings and even then we can never seem to start choir practice straight afterwards - there's always some sort of delay!

How's that for a thread wander? :D

Re: Butch Cassidy's Father.
 

My 2nd ex's surname was Place - a Blackburn family.
He claimed that Etta Place ('wife' of both Cassidy and Sundance) was his emigrated great aunt.
He told so many lies that I am not sure it is a fact, but my websearch has revealed that her origins are unknown - she was a lying toadie too.

Re: Butch Cassidy's Father.
 

Butch Cassidy etc is related to myself and my husband. A, Nanny Hindle born 1756 in White Ash Oswaldtwistle and Christened at St James Church Kirk 20/06/1756 ( relation of both of us ) married Richard Ashworth. Alice Ashworth their daughter married William Hartley and they had a daughter Ann Hartley. She then married Robert Parker they had nine children. the 1st Maximilian married Ann Gillies from Scotland and they had 14 children, one of which was Robert Leroy Parker aka Butch Cassidy. I hadn't heard of the Charles Dickens bit, but it's very interesting, if it's true.

Re: Butch Cassidy's Father.
 

Re: Butch Cassidy's Father.
 

Dredging memory from 30+ years ago, I was told ( I think) that his dad was a butchers boy somewhere like Hapton or Padiham. Somebody else probably knows better

Re: Butch Cassidy's Father.
 

Maximillian and his wife Anna had 13 children 12 of whom were still surviving in 1900. Maximillian was born in Accrington at Water Flats Farm in 1845. In 1855 they were living in Preston.

Retlaw

Re: Butch Cassidy's Father.
 

One of my ancestors from Accrington went out with the Parkers and several hundred others to Utah.They took a child with them. This lad went to West Point Military Academy and won the Silver Bullet for being top student in his final year. Later he was an Indian fighter at the same time as Buffallo Bill . I read up on him and learned that the high point of his career was when, surrounded by Indians in a corral, all his men were killed and he ran out of bullets. He took the Silver Bullet out of his wallet and gave it a rub. A genie appeared and told him that anything and everything he wished for would be granted, but that TWO of whatever he asked for - bullets, rifles, cannon or anything else would be given to each Indian out there. He said " Can you fix me up with a glass eye?"

Re: Butch Cassidy's Father.
 

When the film with Paul Newman was made they said, in all the hype, that Roy Parker had been an apprentice butcher in his teens - hence "Butch" - and had taken up with a local man called Cassidy after falling out with his own family. He used the name, from then on, as a sort of pseuodonym in his criminal activities.