Talk:John Parker (English judge)

Entry in Biographia Juridica
PARKER, John, in his admission to Gray's Inn in 1611, is described of Weylond Underwood in Buckinghamshire. He was called to the bar on June 20, 1617, became an ancient in 1638, a bencher in 1640, and in 1642 arrived at the post of reader.

In March 1647 he was appointed a judge of one of the Welsh circuits, and in the next year was sent by the Commons with others to try the rioters in that country. The parliament included him in the serjeants they made on October 30, 1648, and on the death of the king confirmed him in his office of Welsh judge. He was sent on the summer circuit of 1653, either as a serjeant or a judge; for there is some doubt as to the precise date of his being placed on the bench of the Exchequer; Hardres' Reports, which record his judgments as a baron, not commencing till Trinity Term 1655. He kept his seat till the Restoration, through all the changes occasioned by the accession of the Protector Richard amd the return of the Long Parliament. In the parliaments of 1654 and 1656 he represented Rochester; and when Cromwell composed an upper house, he with the other judge was summoned as an assistant. (Godwin, ii. 235, iii. 527 ; Whitelocke, 305-693 ; Parl. Hist. iii. 1430, 1480, 1519.)

Anthony Wood says that he was one of the assistant committee men in Northamptonshire; that he was of the High Court of Justice which tried Lord Capell, the Earl of Holland, and the Duke of Hamilton, in 1649; that in the next year he published a remarkable book, called 'The Government of the People of England, Precedent and Present,' &c. ; and that on June 22, 1655, he was sworn serjeant-at-law, being a member of the Temple, (iv. 225.) The learned author seems, however, to have confounded two individuals; for, besides the difference of the inn of court, it appears manifest that the John Parker who according to Whitelocke, was made a sergeant in 1648 was the

same man who by Hardres' Reports is proved to have been a baron in 1655.

At the Restoration he of course was removed from his place ; but, instead of being subjected to any enquiry into his previous conduct, he was summoned to take the degree of serjeant-at-law: Anthony Wood says, 'by the endeavours of Lord Chancellor Hyde' The same author describes him as father of Dr. Samuel Parker, made Bishop of Oxford by James II., and placed by that king as president of Magdalen College in opposition to the lawful elevation of Dr. Hough. (1 Siderfin 4.)


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This biography contains an interesting analysis of the primary sources in the later Victorian period. Some of the information may be of use in the article. -- PBS (talk) 17:51, 22 July 2014 (UTC)
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