James Parkinson (baptised 28 February 1730, St Mary's Church, Shrewsbury – 25 February 1813) was an English land agent and the proprietor of the

Leverian Museum The Leverian collection was a natural history and ethnographic collection assembled by Ashton Lever. It was noted for the content it acquired from the voyages of Captain James Cook. For three decades it was displayed in London, being broken up ...

which he won in a lottery. He then moved the Leverian collection to a museum at the Blackfriars Rotunda which was sometimes referred to as "Parkinson's Museum". He has sometimes been confused with the surgeon James Parkinson.

Life

Parkinson was the son of James Parkinson and his wife, Jane Birch who had moved from Ireland to Shrewsbury in 1723. His first training was as a law stationer, but he then became a land agent and accountant. In 1769 he helped in the settlement of Sir Thomas Robinson's tangled estates at Rokeby, Yorkshire. This success made his reputation. He later became involved in the Ranelagh Gardens. Parkinson's wife Sarah (married around 1775) had bought two tickets at a guinea each of the lottery for the disposal of the

Holophusicon The Leverian collection was a natural history and ethnographic collection assembled by Ashton Lever. It was noted for the content it acquired from the voyages of Captain James Cook. For three decades it was displayed in London, being broken up ...

collection of Sir Ashton Lever sometime in 1784. On 23 March 1786, the draw had been made and Parkinson later discovered that his wife, now deceased, had won the lottery. The formation of the collection had bankrupted Lever. Parkinson spent nearly two decades trying to make a success of its display, at the Blackfriars Rotunda, which he specially designed with the help of his son, the architect

Joseph T. Parkinson Joseph T. Parkinson (1783 - May 1855, London) was an English architect. He was the son of land agent and museum proprietor James Parkinson. He was articled to William Pilkington. He was a member of James Burton's Loyal British Artificers, a volu ...

. He published various pamphlets and made The museum however did not pay for its maintenance and after twenty years, he put it up for auction in 1806, and the collection was dispersed. The auction took place over 65 days with 8000 lots and earned a total of £6600. Parkinson had two sons and a daughter. Of the sons, John (1775-1847) who had an interest in minerals became a diplomat, and was elected FRS in 1840 while Joseph (1782-1855) became an architect.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parkinson, James 1730 births 1813 deaths Businesspeople from Shrewsbury Directors of museums in the United Kingdom English accountants