PARKYNS, Thomas Boothby (1755-1800), of Rookley, Hants.

Parkyns, a boon companion of the Prince of Wales and a prominent freemason, owed his candidature at Leicester in 1790 to his brother-in-law Clement Winstanley of Braunston, a local Whig stalwart. Returned after a compromise intended to prevent an all-out contest, he had to hide from ‘the violence of his own friends’.2Annual Reg. (1850) app. 275; A. Temple Patterson, Radical Leicester, 66; E. Suff. RO, Tomline mss, Rose to ?, 25 June 1790. He was an inconspicuous Member. He voted, as in the preceding Parliament, against Pitt on Oczakov, 12 Apr. 1791, and was reckoned favourable to repeal of the Test Act in Scotland the same month. He was listed a Portland Whig in December 1792 and thought of for recruitment to Windham’s ‘third party’ in February 1793. His only further minority vote was for Fox’s motion calling for better convoy protection for the merchant navy, 18 Feb. 1794. That summer when Portland joined the government he elicited from him the promise of an Irish peerage, confirmed by Portland in December 1794 when Parkyns was raising a fencible regiment. The peerage was delayed until October following. At the dissolution of 1796 he was in Limerick ‘in consequence of an order to attend a court martial’, but his re-election, as a ministerial supporter, was managed for him by his brother-in-law.3Portland mss PwF7346, 7348, 7349; PwV108, Portland to Parkyns, 14 Dec. 1794; PRO 30/8/168, f. 128; Add. 33102, f. 9; Morning Chron. 24 May 1796.

Rancliffe’s wishes, expressed to Portland in 1797, for peerage or military promotion could not be met. He died of dropsy v.p. 17 Nov. 1800.4Portland mss PwV110, 111, Portland to Rancliffe, 29 Nov. 1796, 29 Mar., 9 Oct. 1797; Gent. Mag. (1800), ii. 1117.