Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parker, John (1799-1881)

944004Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 43 — Parker, John (1799-1881)1895George Clement Boase

PARKER, JOHN (1799–1881), politician, eldest son of Hugh Parker (d. 1861) of Tickhill, near Doncaster, by Mary, eldest daughter of Samuel Walker of Masborough, Yorkshire, was born at Woodthorpe, near Sheffield, on 21 Oct. 1799, and was educated at Repton school. He matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, on 6 March 1817, graduated B.A. 1820, and M.A. 1823; was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 1 July 1824, and went the northern circuit. He entered parliament in the whig interest for Sheffield on 15 Dec. 1832, and continued to represent that town till the general election in July 1852, when he was defeated by John Arthur Roebuck [q. v.] and George Hadfield. He served as a lord of the treasury from 18 July 1837 to 23 June 1841, as first secretary of the admiralty from 9 June 1841 to 10 Sept. 1841, as joint-secretary of the treasury from 7 July 1846 to 22 May 1849, and again as secretary of the admiralty from 21 May 1849 to 3 March 1852. He was gazetted a privy councillor on 24 Oct. 1854. He died at 71 Onslow Square, London, on 5 Sept. 1881, and was buried at Healaugh, near Tadcaster, on 9 Sept., having married, on 8 Feb. 1853, Eliza Charlotte, second daughter of George Vernon of Clontarf Castle, Dublin.

[Foster's County Families of Yorkshire, 1874, vol. i. folding pedigree; Solicitors' Journal, 1881, xxv. 838; Law Times, 1881, lxxi. 366; Dod's Peerage, 1881, p. 546; Haydn's Book of Dignities, ed. Ockerby; Times, 7 Sept. 1881 p. 10, 10 Sept. p. 8.]

G. C. B.