PARKER, Charles (1663-1730), of Burghberry Manor, Peterborough, Northants.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1710 - 1722

Family and Education

b. 1663, 2nd s. of Samuel Parker of Paston, Northants. by Mary, da. of Thomas Armstead of Obthorpe, Lincs.  m. by 1687, Katherine Wilson (d. 1711), 1s. 1da.  suc. maternal uncle Thomas Armstead to part of Thurlby estate, Lincs. 1672.1

Offices Held

Sheriff, Northants. 1726–7.

Biography

Parker’s grandfather, Lawrence Parker, appears to have ranked among Peterborough’s social superiors as a ‘gentleman’ and one of its ‘governors’, but his father had later settled the family at Paston. It is not clear when Charles Parker took up residence in the city, but he was certainly there by around 1700, ‘a gentleman of £600 or £700 a year and a great monied man’, and a member of the city’s magisterial bench. Although he acted in the first election of 1701 as principal agent to the Whig Sidney Wortley Montagu*, who was contesting for one of the city’s parliamentary seats, he voted for the Tory candidates in the county election of 1702. By 1705 he had emerged as one of Peterborough’s leading Tory figures and was described as having ‘a great influence not only in the city but also in the Soke [of Peterborough]’. Parker was himself returned for the city in 1710, with support from the Earl of Exeter (John Cecil*, Lord Burghley), but in the next five years he left no impression upon parliamentary proceedings. The ‘Hanover list’ of the 1710 Parliament confirms his Tory outlook, and during the 1710–11 session he figured as a ‘worthy patriot’ who helped to expose the mismanagements of the old ministry. His Tory stance in the next Parliament was recorded in the Worsley list. He was re-elected in 1715, but lost his seat in 1722, though he continued to exert himself for the Tory cause up until his death in 1730. His son, Armstead, was first elected for Peterborough at a by-election in 1734.2

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Andrew A. Hanham

Notes

  • 1. J. E. Cussans, Herts. (Cashio Hundred), 178; IGI, Northants.
  • 2. Northants. Rec. Soc. x. 158 and passim; CJ, xiii. 632; NLW, MS 17071E, ‘Bk. of the Peace’, [Jan.–Mar. 1701]; Northants. Poll Bks. 1702–1831, p. 45; Northants. RO, Fitzwilliam mss F(M)C1152, Ld. Fitzwilliam to Francis Guybon, 26 Nov. 1700; Northants. RO, Isham mss IC 2745, Sir Gilbert Dolben* to Sir Justinian Isham, 4th Bt.*, 21 Apr. 1705.