Family and Education

bap. 19 June 1651, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Edmund Parker of Burrington and North Molton by his 1st w. Alice. educ. Exeter, Oxf. 1670.  m. (1) lic. 22 July 1679, Elizabeth, da. of Sir John Fowell, 2nd Bt., of Fowelscombe and sis. of Sir John Fowell, 3rd Bt.*, s.p.; (2) bef. 1699, Anne (d. 1727), da. of John Buller I*, 5s. (3 d.v.p.).  suc. fa. 1691.1

Offices Held

Biography

Parker’s family had been seated at North Molton since the 14th century. His father settled at Burrington which he had acquired by marriage. Parker, a Tory, was elected at Plympton Erle in March 1690 and was erroneously classed by Lord Carmarthen (Sir Thomas Osborne†) as a Whig. The following month, however, his return was declared void. In 1695 he was elected at Plymouth. His Toryism may well have bespoken a certain opposition to the vigorous prosecution of the war, as shortly before the election he was visited at Burrington by a deputation of some 80 of the voters, members of the corporation, who urged him ‘to vote readily sufficient supplies for his Majesty’. He was forecast in January 1696 as likely to oppose the government on the proposed council of trade, signed the Association towards the end of February and in March voted against fixing the price of guineas at 22s. He was absent from the division on the attainder of Sir John Fenwick† on 25 Nov. After losing his Plymouth seat in 1698, he was classed retrospectively as a member of the Country party. He stood again at Plympton in January 1701 in a Tory partnership, but was defeated. His death appears to have occurred in 1743. His grandson John, who represented Bodmin and Devon in George III’s reign, became a peer in 1784.2

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. Vivian, Vis. Devon, 370, 587–8; Collins, Peerage, viii. 28–30; Westcote, Devonshire, 538.
• 2. E. F. Eliott-Drake, Fam. and Heirs of Drake, ii. 157; Post Boy, 9–12 Nov. 1695.