Charles Parkin (1689–1765) was an English clergyman and antiquarian. He was rector of

Oxburgh Oxborough is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, well known for its church and manor house Oxburgh Hall. It covers an area of and had a population of 240 in 106 households in the 2001 census, reducing to a population o ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, and assisted

Francis Blomefield Rev. Francis Blomefield (23 July 170516 January 1752), FSA, Rector of Fersfield in Norfolk, was an English antiquarian who wrote a county history of Norfolk: ''An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk''. It includes ...

on his history of the county, completing it after Blomefield's death.

Life

The son of William Parkin of London, a prosperous shoemaker, he was born on 11 January 1690, and educated at Merchant Taylors' School. In 1708 he went to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, graduating B.A. 1712 and M.A. 1717. He married Mary, the widow of John Meriton the rector of

, in 1717. She died in 1732. they had no children.

Blomefield's ''History of Norfolk''

He assisted

with his ''History of Norfolk'', writing the descriptions of Oxburgh and the adjoining parishes. When Blomefield died in 1752, having written about half of the third volume, Parkin undertook the completion of the unfinished ''History'', the fourth and fifth volumes of which (in the original five-volume

folio The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...

edition, completed in 1775) were published under his name. According to

Craven Ord Craven Ord (1756–1832) was an English antiquarian. He was particularly noted for his brass rubbings. Life The younger son of Harry Ord, of the king's remembrancer's office, by Anne, daughter of Francis Hutchinson of Barnard Castle, County Durham ...

, however, the last sheets were finished by a bookseller's hack, employed by Whittingham of Lynn. Parkin's ''Topography of Freebridge Hundred and Half in Norfolk, containing the History and Antiquities of the Borough of King's Lynn, and of the Towns, Villages, and Religious Buildings in that Hundred and Half'' (London, 1762) was reprinted from the fourth volume.

William Stukeley and the Royston Cave

In the 1740s Parkin engaged in a vituperative dispute with

William Stukeley William Stukeley (7 November 1687 – 3 March 1765) was an English antiquarian, physician and Anglican clergyman. A significant influence on the later development of archaeology, he pioneered the scholarly investigation of the prehistoric ...

over the antiquity and imagery of the carvings on the walls of the recently discovered cave at Royston. He attacked Stukeley's claim that the chamber had been the private oratory of one "Lady Roisia" in a pamphlet entitled ''An Answer to, or Remarks upon, Dr. Stukeley's "Origines Roystonianæ"'' (London, 1744). When Stukeley published a reply, Parkin responded with ''A Reply to the Peevish, Weak, and Malevolent Objections brought by Dr. Stukeley in his Origines Roystonianæ, No.2'' (Norwich, 1748).

Joseph Beldam Joseph Beldam (26 December 1795 – 6 June 1866) was an English writer, historian and advocate of the abolition of slavery. Beldam was born at Shepreth Hall (Cambridgeshire), son of William Beldam and Marianne (née Woodham), and died at Banyer ...

, a later historian of the cave, wrote that "though both parties showed abundant learning and ingenuity, the cause of truth suffered much from their mutual loss of temper.

Death and bequests

Parkin died on 27 August 1765, and by his will (dated 17 June 1759) bequeathed money to his old college for the foundation of exhibitions to be held by scholars from the Merchant Taylors' School and from the free school at

Bowes, Yorkshire Bowes is a village in County Durham, England. Located in the Pennines, Pennine hills, it is situated close to Barnard Castle. It is built around the medieval Bowes Castle. Geography and administration Civic history Bowes lies within the Histor ...

, which had been founded by his uncle, William Hutchinson of

Clement's Inn The Inns of Chancery or ''Hospida Cancellarie'' were a group of buildings and legal institutions in London initially attached to the Inns of Court and used as offices for the clerks of chancery, from which they drew their name. Existing from a ...

Notes

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Parkin, Charles 1689 births 1765 deaths 18th-century English Anglican priests English antiquarians People from Breckland District People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge