Rev. Robert Parker, Rector of Patney

Rev Robert Parker

• Parents unknown
• born say 1564 Wilton, Wiltshire, England
• brother of Ann, who married Rev. William Noyes
• died Spring of 1614 at Doesburg, Netherland while acting as preacher in the English garrison.
• Married (once) in Patney, Wiltshire Dorothy Stevens before 1593
• His widow Dorothy left a will dated 10 Oct 1649 at “Midenhall in Wiltshire” link

Children

1. Sara Parker bp 15 Apr 1593 Patney, Wiltshire m/1 John Woodbridge m/2 Thomas Baylie
2. Rev Thomas Parker b 1595 Wilton, Wiltshire died 1677 Newbury, MA unmarried
3. Elizabeth c1597 Wilton, Wiltshire m Timothy Avery remained in England

Biography

Robert Parker was father to Rev Thomas Parker of Newbury, MA and father of Sarah Parker who married first John Woodbridge who also had two sons who came to New England and married second Thomas Baylie. He was also father to Elizabeth Parker who married Timothy Avery. Robert Parker was also brother to Ann Parker who married William Noyes and was mother to the Noyes family we are referring to above:

Robert Parker born c1564 perhaps at Wilton, Wiltshire (Parents not known) perhaps a relative of the earls of Pembroke graduated Oxford and Magdalen became a fellow. He was made rector on 23 Sep 1591 by Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Penbroke at Patney, Wiltshire. He was also gifted the role of warden of St. Nicholas Hospital, Salisbury. About this time he married Dorothy Stevens (his only wife) and had a daughter Sara Parker bp 15 Apr 1593 at Patney, Wiltshire. He resigned both positions on 11 Jun 1593 and was appointed rector of Wilton, Wiltshire (the seat of the Herbert family). For 14 years he was surrounded by some of England’s greatest intellects, poets and playwrights. In 1594 the Earl appointed him to the rectorship of Stanton St. Bernard, Wiltshire. In 1607 he published “A Scholasticall Discourse Against Symbolizing with Antichrist in Ceremonies, Especially in the Signe of the Cross.” In this place he had son Thomas Parker born c1595 and shortly after Elizabeth Parker. This work published in the Netherlands won him prosecution in the ecclesiastic court of the Bishop. In 1612 he wrote and open letter to clear his name:

“I was certified… long sithence of a vain rumor spread of me in England, as if I had joined with the schism of them, who commonly called Brownist This report was much strengthened (as I was then informed) by the slanders of one Samuel Wats, who gave forth about Sarum [Salisbury], that I had read or seen the fantastical book which he a little before had printed: a fond and frivolous untruth, yet so prevailing with some, forgetting the Commandment, Thou salt not receive a false tale against they neighbor, as that thereupon my deprivation was hastened.”

He was exiled from Wilton in 1607 and was hiding in London with Dr. William Ames. It was Robert Brown who saved his life and ferried him to the Netherlands. Robert Brown was “a man of good understanding and well versed in the discipline of the separation, having been a ruler in one of their churches in London.” Robert Brown became a ruling elder in Watertown. Robert Brown conveyed Dr. William Ames and Robert Parker aboard their vessel at Gravesend as they were being pursued. Once in Leiden William Bradford notes they joined Henry Jacobs. There Robert Parker moved to Amsterdam and joined John Paget’s church in 1612. He died in the Spring of 1614 at Doesburg, Netherland while acting as preacher in the English garrison. His widow Dorothy made her will 10 Oct 1649 a “Midenhall in Wiltshire” and names her children Mr Thomas Parker of New England and her daughter Sarah Baylie and Elizabeth Avery. Thomas Parker of Newbury, MA wrote “The visitations and the Prophecies of Daniel” and sent it to his brother-in-law Thomas Baylie who dedicated it to Philip [Herbert] Earl of Pembroke in for the dependence of his father Robert Parker and to his honorable father Henry Herbert.

In Mather’s Magnalia 1:484: “Mr. James Noyes was born, 1608 at Choulderton in Wiltshire, of godly and worthy parents. His father was minister of the same town, a very learned man, the school-master of Mr. Thomas Parker. His mother was sister to the learned Mr. Robert Parker…”

Associations

Rev. Parker seems to have been part of an extensive network of family and Dissenters.

From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Parker_(minister)_

When his wife's sister Ann married, he became brother (in-law) of William Noyes, minister of Cholderton, Wiltshire.

Sources

1. Robert Charles Anderson, Puritan Pedigrees, The Deep Roots of the Great Migration to New England (Boston, MA: NEHGS, Dec 2018) 291-308
2. Lecture by Robert Charles Anderson 2018, Oakland, CA notes taken by Roland Henry Baker, III
3. A P Baggs, Elizabeth Crittall, Jane Freeman and Janet H Stevenson, 'Parishes: Patney', in A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 11, Downton Hundred; Elstub and Everleigh Hundred, ed. D A Crowley (London, 1980), pp. 203-208. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol11/pp203-208 [accessed 9 February 2019]. “Robert Parker, rector 1591–3, was afterwards forced to live abroad because of his extreme puritan views. (fn. 103)”

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1 PARKER, Rev. Robert b: 1543 Cholderton, WIL, ENG d: 1590-1591 Duesbert,

    Holland #: PARK1

This family wants grooming! There seems to be confusion over Sarah Parker (b. 1583) who married Woodbridge -- viz Was she the daughter, or the granddaughter, of Rev. Robert Parker (b. 1543)?

PARK1.notes

2001-04-02

• + +(COLLYNS), Mary Eydith Burge b: 1555 Cholderton, WIL, ENG #: PARK34

    m: ~1574 Cholderton, WIL, ENG

• 2 PARKER, Rev. Robert b: 1569 Cholderton, WIL, ENG d: 1614 #: PARK3
• + +STEVENS, Dorothy b: ~1569 Mildenhall, WIL, ENG d: 11 Apr 1650

     #: PARK7 m: 1589

  3  PARKER, Thomas #: PARK8

  3  PARKER, Elizabeth #: PARK9

• 3 [1] PARKER, Sarah b: 1583 Cholderton, WIL, ENG d: 1683 #: PARK33
• + +WOODBRIDGE, Rev. John [0] b: 1582 Stanton, WIL, ENG d: 09 Dec 1637

  |   Stanton, WIL, ENG #: WOOD2 m: ~1603 _, WIL, ENG Father: WOODBRIDGE,

  |   John

  «2nd Husband of [1] Sarah Parker:»

• + +BAILEY, Thomas #: PARK11

 2  PARKER, Richard b: 1572 Cholderton, WIL, ENG d: 1611 #: PARK4

 2  PARKER, Anne b: 1575 Cholderton, WIL, ENG d: 07 Mar 1657/58

     Cholderton, WIL, ENG #: PARK5

 +  +NOYES, William b: 1568 Cholderton, Wiltshire, England, Uk d: 30 Apr

     1622 Cholderton, Wiltshire, England, Uk #: PARK544 m: 31 May 1592

     Cholderton, Wiltshire, England, Uk Mother: ATTRIDGE, Joan

     Father: NOYES, Robert William

 2  PARKER, Thomas b: ~1585 ENG d: 24 Apr 1677 Boston, , MA #: PARK2

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Parker Families (4)
1543 - 1988

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~dav4is/ODTs/PARKE...

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