PARKER, John I

More may be added to the earlier biography.2 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 13.

It is of interest to note that when Parker made a grant of his goods and chattels at Hastings in May 1430 the recipients were headed by William Prestwick, currently the clerk of the Parliaments.3 CCR, 1429-35, p. 44. In Hilary term 1431 he appeared in the court of common pleas in person to sue Thomas Gynnour of West Firle, franklin (either the MP of this name or his father) for a debt of six marks, and in Trinity term 1432 he did likewise to bring an action against a husbandman of Burghersh, who allegedly owed him 20 marks.4 CP40/680, rot. 157. This last was while his fourth Parliament was in session at Westminster. Little is known about his trading concerns, not mentioned in the earlier biography, although in 1433 he purchased a royal licence to export grain, and while the Parliament of that year was in progress he received a reward at the Exchequer for seizing a shipment of wool packed in Dorset and neither customed nor cocketted.5 DKR, xlviii. 290; E403/709, m. 11.

Parker was among those enfeoffed in February 1435 by John Tamworth* in ‘Felderesland’ or ‘Foxhuntesland’ in Battle,6 Huntington Lib. San Marino, California, Battle Abbey mss, 1384. and eight months later he accompanied him to the Commons as a representative for Hastings. Among his co-feoffees of Tamworth’s land was the lawyer Richard Wakehurst†, and it was in association with Wakehurst and Reynold Peckham*, a knight of the shire for Kent in this same Parliament, and also with William Courthope* and Thomas Carpenter*, that in May 1443 he purchased a licence from the Crown to found ‘Salerne’s Chantry’ in St. Clement’s church. There a chaplain would offer daily prayers for the welfare of the founders and the King, as well as for the souls of the King’s parents and John Salerne† and his wife. Salerne had died more than 30 years earlier and his only daughter and her children were all long dead too, so the endowment was considerably overdue.7 CPR, 1441-6, p. 197; The Commons 1386-21, ii. 504-5; iv. 287-8.

Well into the 1440s and as late as 1446, Parker continued to claim exemption from taxation on his moveable goods outside the liberty of Hastings, indicating that he held property at Wilting, Ore and Fairlight. He probably died before the end of the decade, when the distinction between John Parker ‘senior’ and ‘junior’ (perhaps his son) ceased to be made.8 E179/225/50, 59; 226/69, 71; 227/94; 228/107, 131; 229/138, 151.