Sir Philip Parker, MP, 1st Bt of Arwaton

Family and Education

• b. c.1625, 1st son of Sir Philip Parker of Erwarton by Dorothy, daughter and heir of Sir Robert Gawdy of Claxton, Norfolk.
• educ. Grays Inn 1641.
• married (1) 9 Apr. 1649, Rebecca, daughter of Sir Walter Long, 1st Baronet of Whaddon, Wiltshire, 4 sons, 3 daughters;
• married (2) 7 Nov. 1661, aged 36, Hannah, daughter and heir of Philip Bacon of Woolverstone, Suffolk, widow of Thomas Bedingfield of Darsham, Suffolk, 3 daughters;
• married (3) 31 July 1677, Sarah, daughter of Joachim Matthews of Great Gobions, Essex, 1 son, 3 daughters
• created Baronet 16 July 1661;
• succeeded father 1675.[1]

Offices Held

• Justice of the Peace for Suffolk 1657-Apr. 1688, 1689-d.,
• Justice of the Peace for Essex 1657-?Mar. 1660,
• Commissioner for assessment, Suffolk Jan. 1660-80, 1689-d.,
• Commissioner of militia Mar. 1660,
• Captain of militia horse Apr. 1660,
• Colonel of militia foot 1675-Feb. 1688, 1689-d.,
• Commissioner for recusants 1675;
• Commissioner for freeman, Harwich 1679;
• Deputy Lieutenant for Suffolk 1682-Feb. 1688.[2]

Biography

Parker came of a family established in Suffolk since the reign of Richard III, but his grandfather, who sat for the county in 1601, was the first to enter Parliament. His father, a ship-money sheriff, was knight of the shire in the Long Parliament until Pride’s Purge, a Presbyterian elder and a committeeman, though the £800 at which he was assessed by the committee for the advance of money in 1643 was not completely paid until 1654. He remained a j.p. until 1653, and held office again after the Restoration, though he was not politically active.[3]

Parker’s residence at Erwarton lay just across the estuary from Harwich, for which he was returned at the second general election of 1679. A moderately active Member of the second Exclusion Parliament, and presumably a court supporter, he served on four committees, of which the most important were to consider the proceedings of the judges in Westminster Hall and the bill for regulating parliamentary elections. He was re-elected in 1681, but left no trace on the records of the Oxford Parliament.

In 1685 he solicited the nomination from James II, who replied that he thought Parker had represented Ipswich, but that he would ask Samuel Pepys ‘to quit his pretences’ at Harwich. Pepys, nervous about his ‘supposed election’ at Sandwich, refused the King’s request, but James promised to recommend Parker to the Sandwich electors, and he was duly returned after a contest at the by-election caused by Pepys’s decision to retain his Harwich seat.

His only committee was on the bill for licensing hackney coaches. He presumably opposed James’s policy on the Penal Laws as he was omitted from the lieutenancy in February 1688. He offered to stand for Harwich in 1689 but he was not seriously considered.

After the Revolution he was active as a militia officer. His estates were heavily encumbered with debt and in November 1689 he wrote to his sister, complaining of ill health and begging for a loan of £10. He was unsuccessful at Harwich in February 1690 and died in the following month. His grandson sat for Harwich as a Whig from 1715 to 1734.[4]

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: Gillian Hampson / Basil Duke Henning

Notes

• 1. Vis. Norf. (Harl. Soc. lxxxv), 91; St. Giles in the Fields par. reg.; PCC 48 Dyke.
• 2. Merc. Pub. 22 Apr. 1660; Eg. 1626, f. 42; HMC 13th Rep. IV, 466, 467; CSP Dom. 1666-7, p. 549; 1676-7, p. 588; 1685, p. 166; Harwich bor. recs. 98/4/58.
• 3. Copinger, Suff. Manors, vi. 18; County of Suff. Divided (1647), 1; Keeler, Long Parl. 295; Cal. Comm. Adv. Money, 302.
• 4. HMC Montagu, 190; HMC Buccleuch, i. 341-2; Bodl. Rawl. mss, A 179, ff. 144, 145, 149; Kent AO, SA/AC8, f. 251; Harwich Guildhall, borough mss, bdle. 69, f. 16; Copinger, vi. 37, 109, 123; Eg. 2410, f. 21; East Suff. RO, 105/2/11.