Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/319

 and then before Chief-justice Jeffreys in the king's bench, the proceedings against him being continued till April 1686.

After spending some years in London he was readmitted to the university early in 1689 by Dr. Gilbert Ironside, vice-chancellor, but failed to regain his fellowship. He published a vindication of his own conduct anonymously, and took some part in the controversy with the nonjurors. His whiggish pamphlets probably brought him under the favourable notice of Archbishop Tillotson, who procured for him the headmastership of King Edward's School, Birmingham, in 1694. Though the town had given its name to the extreme section of the whig party, he was never free from the difficulties which his violent temper created for him. His differences with the governing body rose to such a pitch in 1709 that they unanimously resolved on his ejectment, alleging that the school under his direction had declined both in numbers and reputation. Costly proceedings in chancery had no result: the headmaster maintained his position until his death; but no exhibitioners were sent to the universities, and the number of his pupils diminished. The rebuilding of the school, commenced in 1701, had no doubt temporarily impaired its efficiency. Parkinson is said to have enjoyed great esteem as a schoolmaster (Rawl. MS.), and Hearne admits, on the authority of an old pupil of his, that he never attempted to enforce upon his scholars his own political principles (, MS. Diary, vol. cxxxviii.)

He died on 28 March 1722, and was buried in the middle chancel of St. Martin's Church, Birmingham, near the altar steps. A stone, with inscription, was placed on the grave by his son (Rawl. MSS. and (imperfect) in Gent. Mag. March 1804). He was a little man, ‘very furious and fiery’.

He left a widow, who died in 1742. His only son, James, was baptised at Birmingham on 4 Sept. 1700, and educated in his father's school. He matriculated at Oxford from Wadham College on 6 June 1717, proceeded B.A. on 20 Feb. 1720–1, was admitted M.A. on 11 May 1724, was elected sub-dean, and died on 28 Dec. 1724, being buried near his father (Rawl. MS. J. 4o.5, 543).

Parkinson's works are: 1. ‘An Account of Mr. Parkinson's Expulsion from the University of Oxford, in the Late Times. In Vindication of him from the False Aspersions cast on him in a late Pamphlet, Entituled “The History of Passive Obedience [by Dr. Geo. Hickes?],”’ (anon.), London, 1689, 4to. 2. ‘The Fire's continued at Oxford; or, The Decree of the Convocation for Burning the “Naked Gospel” [by Arthur Bury] considered, In a letter to a Person of Honour’ (anon.), dated 30 Aug. 1690, 4to. 3. ‘An Examination of Dr. Sherlock's Book, entituled “The Case of the Allegiance due to Sovereign Powers Stated and Resolved,”’ &c., London, 1691, 4to. 4. ‘A Dialogue between a Divine of the Church of England and a Captain of Horse, concerning Dr. Sherlock's late Pamphlet, intituled “The Case of Allegiance”’ 1691 [?].

[Rawl. MSS. J. fol. 4, 173, and 4o.5, 453; Wood MS. 18 D. 51a–54b; Hearne's Diaries (Rawl. MSS.), vol. cxxxviii. ff. 109–10, vol. ii. f. 63, vol. iii. f. 76, ed. Doble (Oxford Hist. Soc.); Wood's Life, ed. Clark, ii. 288, 431, Athenæ, ed. Bliss, iv. 571–2, Fasti, ed. Gutch, pp. 867–8; Fowler's Hist. of Corpus Christi College (Oxford Hist. Soc.) p. 283, n. 2; [Parkinson], Account of Expulsion (Bodleian copies with manuscript notes by Gough and Harman); Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Gardiner's Wadham Registers; Gent. Mag. 1804, i. 227; Carlisle's Endowed Grammar Schools, ii. 631–44; Hutton's Hist. of Birmingham, ed. 1806, p. 295; Griffith's History of Free Schools, &c., of Birmingham, pp. 7, 35, 450.]  PARKINSON, JAMES (1730?–1813), museum proprietor, was born at Shrewsbury about 1730, of parents whose family had settled in Ireland in the reign of Charles I. He was brought up to the business of a law stationer, and became agent to many noblemen's estates. When, in 1784, Sir Ashton Lever [q. v.] obtained an act of parliament to dispose of his museum by lottery, it was won by Parkinson. He at first tried to dispose of it, the Queen of Portugal and the Empress of Russia nearly becoming purchasers. Failing to effect a sale, and the rent of Leicester House, where the collection was, being very great, he bought a piece of land, on which he erected for its display the building known as the Rotunda in Albion Street, near the Surrey end of Blackfriars Bridge, where for some years it was one of the sights of London. In 1790 an anonymous ‘Companion to the Museum’ was issued, the preface to which states that ‘the present Proprietor has thought it incumbent on him to proceed in forming a Catalogue. …’ The collection was rich in minerals and fossils, and the extensive erudition on the subject evinced by this catalogue may have been partly derived from an unpublished ‘Catalogus Petrificatorum … Leverianum’ in nine folio fasciculi, which, according to a sale catalogue in the Geological Library of the Natural History Museum, was sold by