MS: three letters to Elizabeth Shackleton LRO, DDB Ac 7886/20, 44, 68 (MS span: 1776–78).
Robert Frankland, Browsholme, Yorkshire
Steward to John Parker, father of Elizabeth Parker.
MS: single letter LRO, DDB Ac 7886/150 (MS span: 1747).
*William Hill, Ormskirk, Lancashire
This correspondent is credited with the original recipe for the Parkers' rabies medicine. After Parker's death, Hill went into partnership with a Mr James Berry, selling the potion in Berkeley Square, London. His son, Master Hill, was apprenticed to an attorney in Warrington in 1771. Hill's niece, Miss Smith, was a longstanding friend of Elizabeth Parker's. In the 1770s Miss Smith was forced into mean lodgings in Wigan and Ormskirk, and later into an unhappy marriage with a drunken tradesman, a Mr Knowles of Prescot.
MS: two letters LRO, DDB/72/56 and 475. The London business is referred to in LRO, DDB/81/10 (1770), f. 82 (MS span: 1748–54).
*Henry Hubbard, Emmanuel College, Cambridge (c.1708–1778)
This cleric was the son of an Ipswich cabinet-maker. He went up to St Catharine's College, Cambridge, in 1724, became a fellow in 1730 and a fellow of Emmanuel in 1732, where he was tutor for many years. He also served as Taxor (a college officer responsible for the regulation of weights and measures) and Registrar. Among other posts, he was ordained deacon of Lincoln in 1730. Hubbard's standing was such that he was painted by Gainsborough. His letters to Robert Parker itemize the young man's college accounts.
MS: five letters LRO, DDB/72/468–72 (MS span: 1744–5).
Anne Lister, at Chapel Thorp, Wakefield, Yorkshire, and Broughton, Lancashire (1722–55)
This woman was one of the powerful Listers of Gisburn Park, although in her letters she regretted not living at the family seat as in her father's day. It appears that she lived as a guest of various prominent and powerful northern families, such as the Asshetons of Broughton and the Curzons of Kedleston in Derbyshire. The Listers of Gisburn Park were taxed on six male servants in 1780. They also bought their mahogany from Gillows of Lancaster.
MS: two letters LRO, DDB Ac 7886/186 and 270 (MS span: 1747–49).
*Lawrence Ormerod of Ormerod, Burnley, Lancashire (d. 1758)
A gentleman, the son and heir of the Ormerod estate. He was married to Margaret Ormerod of Tunstead, Rossendale, and had four children. He was buried at Burnley. He was taxed on two male servants in 1780.
MS: single letter LRO, DDB Ac 7886/199 (MS span: 1747).
Anne Parker, Cuerden Hall, near Preston, Lancashire
The self-confident wife of Robert Parker of Cuerden, born Anne Townley of Royle who was on visiting terms with the titled and the fashionable. The Parkers of Cuerden were also customers of Gillows of Lancaster.
MS: six letters LRO, DDB Ac 7886/18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24. (MS span: c.1776).
Barbara Parker (née Fleming), Browsholme, Yorkshire (d. 1813)
The daughter and co-heiress of the baronet Sir William Fleming of Rydal Hall, Westmorland. In 1754, in Lancaster, she married Edward Parker of Browsholme (Arthur Devis painted this couple in 1757). Thereby she became Elizabeth Parker's sister-in-law. Through the Fleming sisters, the Parkers associated with the Wilsons of Dalham Tower and Lord and Lady Leicester of Tarporley, Cheshire.
MS: single letter LRO, DDB Ac 7886/75 (MS span: c.1754).
Miss Elizabeth Parker, Preston, Lancashire
This woman was undoubtedly one of the Parkers of Preston and Cuerden. She was either the sister of Robert Parker of Cuerden (1727–79) or his daughter by Anne Townley of Royle. If the daughter, then she died in 1775. Robert Parker of Cuerden was taxed on six male servants in 1780. He also patronized Gillows of Lancaster.
MS: single letter LRO, DDB/72/1581 (MS span: 1773).
Edward (‘Ned’) Parker, Farm Hill, Waltham Abbey, Essex (b. 1725)
Robert Parker's cousin. His early successes in manufacturing enabled him to establish his Essex estate. Yet in 1773 he went bankrupt (being registered in the Gazette of that year as a bay maker, dealer and chapman.) He married his first wife, Frances Jones of Holborn (Fanny) in 1749, when aged twenty-four, but was widowed in 1763. In 1767 he married his second wife, a Miss Monat of New Bond Street. The Monats were grocers, said to be worth ten thousand pounds, although gossips reported with surprise that the couple never left their counter.
MS: thirty letters LRO, DDB/72/53, 58, 63, 71–2, 474, 476, 478–80, 485–6, 490; and DDB Ac 7886/1–7, 118, 138, 160, 183, 203, 206, 211, 214, 223, 283. For his first marriage, see Guildhall Marriage Licences, 1746–50. On the bankruptcy, refer to London Gazette (1773), items 11376, 11392 (MS span: 1745–58).
Edward Parker, Browsholme, Yorkshire (1731–94)
Elizabeth Parker's only brother. He was educated in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and Cambridge. In adulthood he was Bow-Bearer of the Forest of Bolland and patron of the churches of Bentham, Ingleton, Chapel le Dale and Waddington. Edward Parker's letters date from the 1740s. He broke off personal communication with his sister from 1765 until c.1775 on account of her marriage to John Shackleton, although the instrumental contact was maintained through his wife, his steward and Elizabeth's sons, of whom Edward was co-guardian. The Parkers had only one surviving son, John Parker, who married Beatrix Lister. In his obituary of 1795, he was applauded for the ‘dignity and hospitality of an ancient English baron’. Like his sister, he purchased his mahogany from Gillows of Lancaster.
MS: fifteen letters LRO, DDB Ac 7886/80, 81 and 149, 151, 154, 163, 169, 178, 182, 215, 237, 249, 250; LRO, DDB/72/66–7; three letters to Robert Parker LRO, DDB/ 72/57, 487 and 489. Letters survive from Barbara and Edward Parker to their nephew Thomas Parker of Alkincoats, see, for example, LRO, DDB/72/330, 941 and 943. See also, BIHR (1795), Will of Edward Parker, and Gentleman's Magazine, 65 (1795), p. 82 (MS span: 1746–95).
John Parker, Browsholme, Yorkshire (1695–1754)
Father to Elizabeth Parker. John Parker is designated linen-draper in his daughter's baptismal register, see G. W. G. Leveson Gower (ed.), The Registers of St Peter's, Cornbill, 1667–1774, Harleyan Society Registers Section, IV (1879), p. 35. Freedom records reveal that he was initially trained as a mercer. In 1713, at the age of eighteen, he was apprenticed for seven years to a Thomas Riley, citizen and mercer of London, at a cost of two hundred pounds: CLRO, Freedom Records, CF1/420. He married Elizabeth Southouse, the daughter of an Essex merchant (Henry Southouse of Manuden is described as a wire-drawer in 1723, see CLRO, Freedom Records, CF1/432). In 1728, however, John Parker inherited the Parker family estate through a half-brother and so became master of Browsholme Hall in the West Riding, close to the Lancashire border, and of a substantial estate in Ingleton. Despite their promotion, the family did not remove immediately to Yorkshire; certainly they were still resident in Cornhill when Elizabeth's brother Edward was born in 1731. Exactly how much longer the Parkers remained in London is unclear, although they stayed long enough for their daughter to be confirmed into the Anglican Church by the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Tower of London. Mrs Elizabeth Parker died before her daughter came of age, so Miss Elizabeth Parker was for some years sole mistress of Browsholme and the estate, worth almost five hundred pounds in annual rent. All of John Parker's letters were written as a widower.
MS: twenty-nine letters LRO, DDB Ac 7886/76–9, 87, 102, 146–7, 152–3, 155–6, 217, 222–6, 229, 231, 233, 234, 245, 247–8, 251–2, 291, 293, 297, 300, 306 (MS span: 1747–54).
*Robert Parker, Pall Mall, London
A London merchant by repute, he was almost certainly the father of Ned Parker, Thomas Parker and Bessy Ramsden, and therefore the uncle of Robert Parker of Alkincoats.
MS: single letter to Robert Parker LRO, DDB/72/488 (MS span: 1755).
*Thomas Parker, London (d. 1767)
Robert Parker's first cousin and brother of Bessy Ramsden and Ned Parker. He was a stationer and printer. Although none of his letters to Elizabeth survives, her diaries reveal that he furnished her with London newspapers until h
is premature death in April 1767 of kidney disease.
MS: single letter to Robert Parker LRO, DDB/72/52. His death is mentioned in LRO, DDB/72/202 (29 May 1767), W. Ramsden, Charterhouse, to E. Shackleton, Alkincoats (MS span: 1751).
Thomas Parker, Winchester, Hampshire (1754–1819)
Eldest son of Elizabeth and Robert Parker of Alkincoats. Writing here from school. As the heir, Parker came into the Alkincoats estate upon his majority in 1775. Despite a mooted career in the church or the army, he took up no profession. Upon his marriage in 1779 to the nineteen-year-old heiress Betty Parker of Newton Hall, Yorkshire, his mother removed definitively to John Shackleton's newly built mansion, Pasture House at Barrowford. An extraordinary amount of the correspondence he received is preserved. Among numerous others, he got letters from Betty his wife, his brother John Parker, his uncle and aunt Edward and Barbara Parker of Browsholme, his cousins John and Beatrix Parker of Marshfield, his children Eliza, Edward and Thomas, and from families such as the Cunliffes of Wycoller, Claytons of Carr, Carrs of Langroyd and Stackhouse, Starkies of Huntroyde, Whitakers of Simonstone, St Clares of Preston and Grindleton, Towneley Parkers of Cuerden, Ferrands of Bingley, the Wiglesworths of Townhead and Thorp, etc.
MS: single letter LRO, DDB Ac 7886/64. For letters to him, see LRO, DDB/72/311–85, 492–979 (MS span: 1768–1819).
Ann Pellet (née Southouse), London (d. 1776)
Elizabeth Parker's maternal aunt, the daughter of the merchant Henry Southouse of Manuden, Essex, and the widow of Dr Thomas Pellet (?1671–1744), president of the Royal College of Physicians (1735–9). Mrs Pellet was stepmother to Thomas Pellet's daughter from his first marriage, Jane Scrimshire (née Pellet), but it appears that none of her own children survived infancy. Her marital home was in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. During over thirty years of widowhood, she lived with her longtime servant, secretary and companion a Miss M. Bowen. They boarded with quiet, genteel families, many of them relatives, in Ealing, Brentford, Kensington and Westminster. Despite her conscious retirement, Mrs Pellet received visits from Lady Fleming of Rydal and Lady Leicester of Tarporley. At her death Ann donated twenty guineas to Elizabeth Shackleton and various monies to her numerous Southouse nephews, nieces and godchildren. She also bequeathed pieces of silverware to the Scrimshire children, the contents of a cabinet to the Duchess of Kensington, a sable tippet and the crimson damask furniture to her niece Patsy Box, a mourning ring to her friend Frances Cole, ten pounds to be distributed to ‘the fittest objects of charity’ and all remaining clothes and furniture, plus an annuity of fifteen pounds a year to Miss Bowen.
MS: ninety-six letters LRO, DDB/72/76–122, 162–71, 446; DDB Ac 7886/96, 98–9, 113–14, 128, 133, 137, 143, 162, 170–71, 193, 201, 207, 213, 222, 227, 236, 239, 241, 246, 256, 264, 267, 272–5, 279, 284, 286, 294, 304, 313, 316. Also three letters to Robert Parker LRO, DDB/72/54, 59, 62. See also PRO, 11/1016, Will of Mrs Ann Pellet. For professional information, see W. Munk (ed.), The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London (1878), II, p. 56 (MS span: 1746–75).
R. Pudsey, Bolton, Yorkshire
The Pudseys of Bolton by Bowland were an established Yorkshire gentry family, related by marriage to the Dawsons of Langliffe Hall. This woman wrote thanks for civilities received at Browsholme.
MS: single letter LRO, DDB Ac 7886/165 (MS span: 1747).
‘MR’
Although this woman's status is unknown, she probably belonged to a local family of substance, as she entertained a great deal company and mentioned her husband's (‘C:R’) journeyings to the assizes.
MS: letter LRO, DDB Ac 7886/170 (MS span: c.1747).
Bessy Ramsden (née Parker) and William Ramsden (1718–1804), Charterhouse Square, London
Bessy was Elizabeth Parker's cousin. She was the daughter of Robert Parker of London, sister of the manufacturer Ned Parker and the stationer Thomas Parker. She married William Ramsden some time in the late 1750s. Before her marriage, she lived with her brother Ned and later boarded with a ‘genteel family in Aldersgate street’. After her marriage her brother Ned demanded retroactive rent and refused to comply with the terms of Bessy's marriage settlement. Reverend Ramsden was the son of John Ramsden, Master of Penistone School, Yorkshire. Educated at Barnsland near Halifax; usher at Worsborough School, Yorks, 1737–8; BA Cantab. 1742; MA, 1745; PDD Lambeth, 1779; usher at Bishops Stortford School, 1741–8; usher at Charterhouse School, 1748–78, Master 1778–1804; Revd of Balsam, Cambridgeshire, 1779–1804. This cosy couple had four children, Billy (b. 1763), Betsy (b. 1764), Tommy (b. 1768) and Dick (b. 1770). Elizabeth Parker was godmother to the eldest boy.
MS: 129 letters LRO, DDB/72/74–5, 172–298. For professional information, see R. L. Arrowsmith (ed.), Charterhouse Register, 1769–1872 (1974), p. 420 (MS span: 1760–77).
Robert Sclater, Clitheroe, Lancashire
This man acted as a political agent for the Listers of Gisburn Park; and was also a witness to the codicil to John Parker's will. A local land deed identifies him as a gentleman, but he was almost certainly a lawyer as well.
MS: three letters LRO, DDB/72/452 and 484; LRO, DDB Ac 7886/276 (1749). For deed, see LRO, DDB/80/116 (MS span: 1749–68).
Jane Scrimshire (née Pellet), Pontefract, Yorkshire
Daughter of Dr Thomas Pellet of London by his first wife. She met Elizabeth Parker through her stepmother Mrs Ann Pellet, and was a frequent visitor to Browsholme Hall in her youth. Unconventionally, she left her stepmother's establishment in 1748 and set up in rooms on her own in Pontefract with her servant Betty (‘a House of my own was always my Inclination and I think a Cottage to oneself is preferable to a Palace of anothers’), where she met her husband Michael Scrimshire, a local lawyer. He practised as an attorney in Ropergate, Pontefract, but had property in Micklegate, York, and also appears to have followed the assize around the northern circuit. The Scrimshires were related by marriage to the Tempests of Tong Hall, Bradford, and therefore spent many summers in this vicinity. (Michael's sister Elizabeth Scrimshire was married to Captain John Tempest of Nottingham, younger son of Sir George Tempest of Tong. The title passed to his family after the death of his two older brothers in the 1750s.) The Scrimshires had three children: Jenny (b. 1752), who was born blind, Tom (b. 1753) and Deborah (b. 1756). Among many godparents, Sir George Tempest was named godfather to the baby ‘Deb’. Deborah Scrimshire married a Mr Green, ‘citizen’, in 1773, while Tom Scrimshire died abroad in 1774.
MS: forty-three letters before marriage LRO, DDB Ac 7886/88, 91, 94, 100, 105, 120, 127, 130, 134, 139, 171, 190, 194, 202, 205, 208, 218, 232, 235, 238, 240, 243, 253, 255, 257, 263, 265, 266, 268, 271, 287, 288, 289, 290, 292, 296, 298, 302, 305, 314, 317, 318, 320. Forty-one letters to Elizabeth after her marriage, LRO, DDB/72/123–61, 445 and 447. Two letters to Robert Parker LRO, DDB/72/55 and 61 (MS span: 1745–57).
G. Seedall, Alkincoats, Lancashire
In the 1750s this woman was employed as nurse to the three Parker children, but it is unclear whether she served in the capacity of wet-nurse or nursemaid.
MS: two letters LRO, DDB/72/69–70 (MS span: 1756).
Edward Southouse, Wax Chandlers Hall, London
Elizabeth Parker's maternal uncle. By his connections and address it was assumed that he was a merchant. Given his commercial association, he was probably a soap-maker like his brother Henry.
MS: single letter LRO, DDB Ac 7886/312 (MS span: 1749).
Henry Kynaston Southouse, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (c.1728–1773)
Cousin to Elizabeth Parker. The son of Henry Southhouse and Mary Kynaston. He was admitted to Sidney Sussex college in 1745 aged seventeen. He matriculated in 1745 and gained his BA in 1748–9. His ultimate occupation is unclear.
MS: single letter LRO, DDB Ac 7886/104 (MS span: 1746).
Jane Southouse (née Parker), London (b. 1702)
Elizabeth Parker's paternal aunt, who married the draper Samuel Southouse Esq. of Manuden, Essex, son of the merchant Henry Southouse of
Manuden, Essex. She lived for a time in Leadenhall Street.
MS: five letters LRO, DDB/72/60, 68; DDB Ac 7886/92, 187, 262. See also CLRO, Freedom Records, CF1/432, 1723 (MS span: 1723–55).
Mary Southouse (née Kynaston), London (c.1702)
Elizabeth Parker's maternal aunt. She was born Mary Kynaston and in 1722 married Henry Southouse of St Giles, Cripplegate, London, a soap-maker ‘being unfortunately one of the worst and most unprofitable trades in England’. At her husband's early death in 1729, she lived off the rent of various properties in St Martins-in-the-Fields, plus the residue of the estate after legacies. She was executor to his will.
MS: single letter LRO, DDB Ac 7886/90. See also CLRO, Freedom Records, CF1/390, June 1720, and ERO, D/Dc 27/1010 (1 Nov. 1729), Probate of will of Henry Southouse (MS span: 1720–45).
Sam Southouse, Temple Cloisters, London
Sam was Ann Pellet's nephew, named executor of her will. He inherited the portraits of his aunt and uncle. From his address and the content of his letter it is assumed that he was a lawyer of some description.
MS: single letter LRO, DDB/72/304 (MS span: 1776).
*John Stanhope, Horsforth, Yorkshire (1701–69)
A leading barrister on the northern circuit: ‘Old friend Lawyer Stanhope’ joined Robert Parker on the grouse moors in the 1750s and sent gifts of venison. Mr and Mrs Stanhope were also friends of the Scrimshires of Pontefract. Presumably the gentlemen worked together on the northern circuit. He is discussed below with the Spencer Stanhopes (see pp. 374–5).
MS: single letter LRO, DDB/72/482. One of his wife's letters to him is recorded in Stirling, Annals, pp. 85–112, but others are collected with the Spencer Stanhope manuscripts in WYAS, Bradford, below (see pp. 374–5). (MS span: 1749).
Thomas Stirling, Browsholme, Yorkshire
From 1757 to 1775 Thomas Stirling helped Elizabeth Parker administer the Alkincoats estate, in his capacity as steward of Browsholme. They enjoyed very amicable relations, exchanging advice and gifts of produce for over two decades. MS: five letters LRO, DDB/72/448, 453–7 (MS span: 1763–70).
The Gentleman's Daughter Page 49