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Historical records matching Samuel Parkes
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About Samuel Parkes
Samuel Parkes was a British manufacturing chemist, now remembered for his Chemical Catechism.
He was born at Stourbridge, Worcestershire, on 26 May 1761. He was the eldest son of Samuel Parkes (died 1 April 1811, aged 76), a grocer, by his first wife, Hannah, daughter of William Mence of Stourbridge. He was at a dame's school in Stourbridge with Sarah Kemble, and in 1771 went to a boarding-school at Market Harborough, Leicestershire, under Stephen Addington.
Parkes began his career in his father's business. In 1790 he was one of the founders, and for some years president, of a public library at Stourbridge. Around 1793 he moved to Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. A Unitarian, he conducted public worship in his own house at Stoke. In 1803 he settled in Goswell Street, London, as a manufacturing chemist.
Parkes married, on 23 September 1794, Sarah (born 25 February 1766; died 14 December 1813), eldest daughter of Samuel Twamley of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. His only child, Sarah Mayo (born 28 May 1797; died 30 July 1887), was married, on 25 May 1824, to Joseph Wainwright Hodgetts, who lost his life at an explosion in a chemical works in Manchester, on 14 February 1851.
He joined Sir Thomas Bernard in agitating (1817) against salt duties, which were repealed in 1825. In 1820 he was prominent, as a chemical expert, in a notable case between Messrs. Severn, King, & Co. and some insurance offices. He was a numismatist, and made a collection of Greek and Roman coins; he was a collector also of prints and autographs, and brought together a set of the works of Joseph Priestley. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1823.
Parkes was a member of 21 learned societies, British and foreign. During a visit to Edinburgh, in June 1825, he went down a painful disorder, which proved fatal. He died at his residence in Mecklenburgh Square, London, on 23 December 1825, and was buried in the graveyard of the New Gravel Pit Chapel, Hackney. His funeral sermon was preached by William Johnson Fox.
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Samuel Parkes's Timeline
| 1761 |
May 26, 1761
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Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, United Kingdom
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| 1797 |
May 28, 1797
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Stoke, Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom
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| 1825 |
December 23, 1825
Age 64
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At home, Mecklenburgh Square, London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom
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| ???? |
New Gravel Pit Chapel, Hackney, Greater London, England, United Kingdom
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