PARKER, John II

In the latter half of Henry IV’s reign a John Parker of Worcestershire stood surety for the guardians of the peace in that county but, given the ubiquity of the name, it is not at all clear whether he was the subject of this biography.3 CCR, 1409-13, p. 62. Likewise, it is not known whether the MP was the John Parker who received a grant of lands at Bentley Pauncefoot, Worcs. from his widowed mother Margaret, relict of Alexander Parker, in 1401: CAD, ii. C2129. A merchant,4 SC8/96/4757. Parker was certainly active in Worcester by 1421, when he attested the combined return of the knights of the shire for Worcestershire and the city’s burgesses to the penultimate Parliament of Henry V’s reign and witnessed conveyances of property.5 Collectanea (Worcs. Historical Soc. 1912), 31. Later that decade, he acted as a witness and feoffee in the city and as an executor for a local woman, Matilda Oldebury.6 Ibid. 14, 32; Worcester Chs. (Worcs. Historical Soc. 1909), 59-60.

During his term as a bailiff of Worcester, Parker encountered William Moyll, a burgess from the Welsh town of Montgomery. On several occasions he impounded goods which Moyll had brought into the city, probably because the Welshman had failed to pay local tolls or observe some municipal regulation. Believing that he had suffered wrongful treatment, Moyll sued Parker in the Exchequer immediately after the latter’s term as bailiff expired. According to Moyll’s bill, Parker had seized 22 tuns of red wine from him in January 1431, holding them for two days until he paid a fine of 7s. 4d. Moyll added that Parker had also impounded a quantity of woad in the following month, and then some iron in September the same year. Parker responded to the bill by obtaining licence to negotiate with his opponent out of court and it would appear that the dispute was settled informally.7 E13/139, rot. 3.

In November 1431 Parker served on a jury which gave evidence to the commissioners who assessed Worcester’s inhabitants for a subsidy on lands,8 Feudal Aids, v. 325. and in the following March he was returned to Parliament. It is possible that he had actively sought election, since his name appears in a petition presented to that assembly. He was the only MP among the petitioners, who also included Thomas Erle of Bristol and Richard Hunte of Tewkesbury. They stated that at Michaelmas 1430 they had chartered a ship to carry merchandise to Bordeaux, only for pirates from St. Malo to seize the vessel and its cargo during its voyage. After they had complained about this act of piracy to the King, he had referred the matter to the duke of Brittany, although the culprits had ignored the duke’s orders to restore the ship and goods to their rightful owners. The petition – the purpose of which was to obtain letters of marque and reprisal against the people of St. Malo for the value of the ship and merchandise – was referred to the Lords, but with what result is not known.9 SC8/96/4757. Whatever the outcome of the petition, during the Parliament Parker took the opportunity to advance his interests in another respect, for in June 1432 the Crown granted him the keeping of the subsidy and alnage of cloths in Worcestershire and Worcester for ten years, in return for a farm of £6 p.a.10 CFR, xvi. 72-73. He is last heard of a decade later, when he attested the return of Worcester’s MPs to the Parliament of 1442.