Life

Born at Browsholme Hall, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

 (now in Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

), England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 on 27 September 1779, he was the eldest of the eight sons of John Parker

John Parker (MP)

John Parker was an English politician. He was a Member of Parliament for Clitheroe 1780-1782.He was the son of Edward Parker of Browsholme Hall, Yorkshire , and was educated at Eton College and Christ's College, Cambridge. The art patron Thomas Lister Parker was his son.-References:...

 of Browsholme

Browsholme Hall

Browsholme Hall is a privately owned Elizabethan house in the parish of Bowland Forest Low in the borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire , England. It is claimed to be the oldest surviving family home in Lancashire...

, by his wife Beatrix, daughter of Thomas Lister of Gisburne Park, Yorkshire. He was educated at the Clitheroe Royal Grammar School

Clitheroe Royal Grammar School

See Royal Grammar School for the other schools with the name RGS.Clitheroe Royal Grammar School is a co-educational secondary school in Clitheroe, Lancashire that used to be an all boys school...

 under the mastership of the Rev. Thomas Wilson, B.D., and at Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...

.

On the death of his father on 25 May 1797 he succeeded to the Browsholme estate. In 1804 and 1805 he made alterations to the sixteenth century Browsholme Hall, rebuilding the west wing, and afterwards he made additions under the superintendence of Sir Jeffrey Wyatville. Parker had a taste for landscape gardening, and between 1797 and 1810 spent large sums in laying out his grounds. In the house he displayed a collection of antiquities and pictures, partly formed by himself. He had a large series of drawings and prints bought during a tour on the continent in 1800 and 1801, at Moscow, Venice, and Paris; a large collection of drawings of castles and manor-houses by John Chessell Buckler

John Chessell Buckler

John Chessell Buckler was a British architect, the eldest son of the architect John Buckler. J.C. Buckler initially worked with his father before working for himself. His work included restorations of country houses and at the University of Oxford.-Career:Buckler received art lessons from the...

, and portfolios of his own drawings. He also possessed pictures of the Flemish school and works of James Northcote

James Northcote

James Northcote RA , was an English painter.-Biography:He was born at Plymouth, and was apprenticed to his father, a poor watchmaker. In his spare time, he drew and painted. In 1769 he left his father and set up as a portrait painter. Four years later he went to London and was admitted as a pupil...

 and Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...

.

Parker was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1801, and afterwards Fellow of the Royal Society. He was High Sheriff of Lancashire

High Sheriff of Lancashire

The High Sheriff of Lancashire is an ancient officer, now largely ceremonial, granted to Lancashire, a county in North West England. High Shrievalties are the oldest secular titles under the Crown, in England and Wales...

 in 1804. He had the sinecure post of ‘Trumpeter to the Queen,’ and claimed the office, as hereditary in his family for many generations, of ‘Bowbearer of the Forest of Bowland

Forest of Bowland

The Forest of Bowland, also known as the Bowland Fells, is an area of barren gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England. A small part lies in North Yorkshire, and much of the area was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire...

,’ Lancashire.

Parker was a liberal patron of artists, but his expenditure brought him into difficulties in the latter part of his life.In 1824 he sold Browsholme estate, with the mansion, to his cousin, Thomas Parker of Alkincoats

Colne

Colne is the second largest town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England, with a population of 20,118. It lies at the eastern end of the M65, 6 miles north-east of Burnley, with Nelson immediately adjacent, in the Aire Gap with two main roads leading into the Yorkshire...

, Lancashire, who, dying without issue in 1832, devised it to his nephew, Thomas Goulbourne Parker. Parker retired from society, and lived at the Star Inn in Deansgate

Deansgate

Deansgate is a main road through the city centre of Manchester, England. It runs roughly north–south in a near straight route through the western part of the city centre and is the longest road in the city centre at over one mile long....

, Manchester, where he died, unmarried, on 2 March 1858. He was buried on 9 March in his family chapel in Waddington Church, Yorkshire.

Works

In 1815 he published a ‘Description of Browsholme Hall … and of the Parish of Waddington.’ The volume included a collection of letters of the reigns of Charles I, Charles II, and James II, printed from the originals at Browsholme. The frontispiece gives a view of the exterior of the hall in 1750.
The views of Browsholme in Thomas Dunham Whitaker

Thomas Dunham Whitaker

Thomas Dunham Whitaker was an English clergyman and topographer.-Life:Born at Rainham on 8 June 1759, he was son of William Whitaker , curate of Rainham, Norfolk, by his wife Lucy, daughter of Robert Dunham, and widow of Ambrose Allen...

's Parish of Whalley were prepared at Parker's expense, one of them, signed ‘Wm. Turner A.,’ being by J. M. W. Turner

J. M. W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting...

. Parker was an associate of Whitaker, who used his antiquarian and genealogical manuscripts for his Whalley. He was also a friend of Charles Towneley

Charles Towneley

Charles Townley was an English country gentleman, antiquary and collector of the Townley Marbles ....

, the Hebers, Turner, and James Northcote. Some of his letters are printed in Francis Robert Raines

Francis Robert Raines

Francis Robert Raines was the Anglican vicar of Milnrow, Lancashire, known as an antiquary. He edited 23 volumes for the Chetham Society publications. He also transcribed 44 volumes of manuscripts.-Early life:...

's ‘Life of Wilson of Clitheroe,’ 1858.