Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/254

Parker publicly playing bowls in Southwark, disappearing, however, before the arrival of the soldiers sent to secure him. In May 1694 he was again apprehended in Bloomsbury, and sent to the Tower, where he was kept in close confinement, and denied writing materials. He had been implicated in Grandval's confession, and in June 1694 a true bill was found against him, but the trial was postponed. On 11 Aug., Sir John Friend having bribed a warder, Parker escaped. A reward of 400l. was vainly offered for his apprehension. He was repeatedly spoken of in the trials of Charnock and Friend, but is not mentioned by Macaulay. In October 1696 he accompanied the Duke of Berwick to London. Contrary to his father's injunctions, Berwick made himself known to his mother, Arabella Churchill, who, perhaps to prevent suspicion of her son's visit, gave information as to Parker, who had to flee to France and to explain the reason of his flight to James. Berwick, upbraided by the latter for his imprudence, bore a grudge against Parker, who in November 1698 was again suspected of being in London, but was fruitlessly searched for. In 1702 Louis XIV reluctantly ordered the arrest of Parker, who by his unguarded talk had incurred the animosity of Mary of Modena and her favourite, Charles, second earl of Middleton [q. v.] He was confined in the Bastille from 16 Aug. 1702 till June 1704. On his release his pension of four hundred francs from the French court was restored, but he was forbidden to approach St. Germain, and required to reside at Chalons. His treatment had so disgusted him with Jacobitism and catholicism (which latter belief, contrary to Onslow's opinion, he had embraced) that he made overtures through his wife to Caillaud, a secret agent of the English government, offering to renounce both and to serve under Anne. Caillaud in June 1704, and again in December 1705, advised the acceptance of the offer, but apparently without result. Nothing more is known of Parker. His two sons did not follow him into exile, but attained high rank in the British army and navy.

[Munk's Coll. of Phys.; Dugdale's Visitation (Surtees Soc.), 1859; Luttrell's Diary; Burnet's Hist. of Own Times, with Onslow's notes; London Gazette, 16 Aug. 1694; Reports of Assassination Plot Trials; Ravaisson's Archives de la Bastille, vol. x. Berwick in his memoirs does not mention Parker.]  PARKER, JOHN (1730?–1765?), painter, is stated to have been born about 1730. He went to Rome to study, and resided there for many years. He painted an altar-piece, representing St. Sylvia, for the church of St. Gregorio, Monte Celio, Rome, and numerous classical and historical works. Parker was also engaged as an agent for acquiring or making copies of works of art and antiquities at Rome for English noblemen and amateurs. Among these was James Caulfeild, fourth viscount (afterwards earl of) Charlemont, for whom he executed many such commissions. As his representative, Parker appears to have been one of the chief actors in the quarrel with the famous engraver Giambattista Piranesi, who dedicated his great work on Roman architecture to Viscount Charlemont, but afterwards cancelled the dedication. Parker was secretary to the Society of Artists at Rome. He returned to England about 1762, and in 1763 exhibited at the Free Society of Artists ‘The Assassination of Rizzio’ and a portrait of himself. He was then residing in Paddington. He is stated to have died in 1765.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. x.]  PARKER, JOHN (fl. 1762–1776), painter, after some study in the Duke of Richmond's gallery of casts in London, went to Chichester, where he studied landscape-painting under the brothers George and John Smith, the well-known landscape-painters. On returning to London he resided in Stangate Lane, Lambeth, near Westminster Bridge. In 1762 he exhibited a still-life in crayons at the Free Society of Artists, in 1763 ‘A Cock,’ also in crayons, and in 1764 another still-life. In 1765 and the following years he exhibited landscapes. In 1768 he went to Rome for two years, returning in 1770, when he again exhibited landscapes in the Italian manner both at the Free Society of Artists and at the Royal Academy. His name appears for the last time as an exhibitor in 1776. He was then residing at 26 Portman Street, London.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Catalogues of the Free Society of Artists and the Royal Academy.]  PARKER, JOHN, second and first  (1772–1840), born 5 May 1772, was the only son of John, first baron Boringdon, by his second wife. The family came originally from Warwickshire, but their seat was transferred from Boringdon to Saltram, near Plymouth, in the seventeenth century.

Parker's father, born in 1735, matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 23 Oct. 1753. He represented Bodmin in 1761–2, and sat for the county of Devon from the latter year till 1784, when he was created a peer as Lord Boringdon. He was a great lover of pictures,