PARKER, John II (d. 1681), of Cuckstool Row nr. Hen Cross, St Peter, Nottingham.

Parker may have been the son or kinsman of either Alderman Robert Parker or of Alderman Richard Parker, both of whom resided in St Peter’s Nottingham during the early Stuart period.20St Peter, Nottingham par. reg.; Notts. RO, M/23973, ff. 2, 4v. He should not be confused with John Parker, son of William, who was also a resident of St Peter’s and a mercer, but apparently a younger man.21St Peter, Nottingham par. reg.; Notts. RO, M/4142. Granted his freedom of the town as a mercer in 1635, our Parker had established himself by 1643 as one of Nottingham’s wealthiest inhabitants.22Notts. RO, CA 4649, f. 15v; Nottingham Borough Recs. v. 204, 219. His long and distinguished municipal career began in 1643 with his appointment as a common councillor.23Nottingham Borough Recs. v. 220. By the late 1650s, he had been elected an alderman and served the first of his four terms as mayor.

In the elections to Richard Cromwell’s* Parliament of 1659, Parker was returned for the town along with John Whalley, the son of the Cromwellian major-general Edward Whalley*. Parker almost certainly owed his election to the backing of the corporation. The indenture has not survived, but it is likely that Parker, as the older man and a senior office-holder, was returned in first place.24Supra, ‘Nottingham’. He received no committee appointments in this Parliament and made no recorded contribution to debate. Nevertheless, on 14 April 1659 the corporation paid him £20 as a testimony of its gratitude for his ‘great pains and charge in attending the service of this town’ in Parliament.25Nottingham Borough Recs. v. 303.

Parker was chosen as mayor for a second time in 1661, but was displaced by the corporation commissioners in August 1662, possibly for refusing to take the oath renouncing the Covenant.26Notts. RO, CA 3434, ff. 31-3. He may have been the John Parker presented in the Nottingham archdeaconry court in 1663 for not kneeling at prayers during divine service.27Lloyd, ‘Politics in Nottingham’, 259. His nonconformity was either very limited in nature or well disguised, however, for early in January 1664 the corporation restored him to the aldermanic bench.28Notts. RO, CA 3435, f. 19v. He died in the spring of 1681 and was buried in St Peter’s, Nottingham on 17 May.29St Peter, Nottingham par. reg. In his will, he left the bulk of his estate to his wife Susanna.30Notts. RO, PR/NW, will of John Parker, 1681. He was the only member of his family to sit in Parliament.