PARKER, Sir Thomas (1595-1663), of Ratton, Willingdon, Suss.

Parker’s family had been of note since the middle of the thirteenth century, Add. 24121, f. 148. and had represented various Sussex constituencies since 1371. His father sat for the county in 1597, despite Catholic sympathies and associations, while his uncle John Parker represented Hastings in 1589. Parker himself was summoned before the Council in February 1622 to explain his refusal to pay the Palatinate Benevolence.SP14/127/79. He was returned to the second Caroline Parliament at a by-election for Hastings in place of (Sir) Dudley Carleton* through the efforts of a fellow Sussex gentleman, Nicholas Eversfield*, who had, a couple of years earlier, unsuccessfully supported the candidacy of Parker’s great-uncle, Sir Alexander Temple, at Winchelsea. Parker did not solicit the place himself,E. Suss. RO, HAS/DH/B98/2, f. 31. For the relationship between the Parker and Temple families, see Vis. Bucks. (Harl. Soc. lviii), 212. however, and it is not known whether he managed to take his seat before the dissolution of 15 June. The elder brother of the radical publicist Henry Parker, he was one of the original Members elected when the representation of Seaford was restored by the Long Parliament. His adherence to the parliamentarian cause came under suspicion during the Civil War but he did not lose his seat until Pride’s Purge.M. Keeler, Long Parl. 296.

Drawing up his will on 28 Mar. 1654 Parker, bequeathed his soul to God, ‘who I am assured for his dear son’s sake ... will assist and strengthen me at the hour of my death’. His son George sat for Sussex as knight of the shire both in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament and in the Convention, and replaced him on the commission of the peace at the Restoration. He died in May 1663, and was buried at Willingdon.PROB 11/311, f. 388.