Richard Parkinson (born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1748; died in England, 23 February 1815) was an English agriculturist.

Biography

He became a farmer, was interested in improved methods, and was encouraged by Sir John Sinclair, president of the

Board of Agriculture The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was a United Kingdom government department created by the Board of Agriculture Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c.30) and at that time called the Board of Agriculture, and then from 1903 the Board ...

, who recommended him to

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

. He left England 3 September 1798, and was for some time in the employ of Washington as an agriculturist at Mount Vernon, and resided at Orange Hill, near

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...

. On his return to England, Parkinson became steward to Sir Joseph Banks in Lincolnshire. He died at Osgodby on 23 February 1815.

Works

He published: * ''The Experienced Farmer'' (2 vols., London, 1798; enlarged ed., with an autobiography, 1807) * ''A Tour in America, 1798-1800'', containing reminiscences of Washington (2 vols., 1805) * ''The English Practice of Farming'' (1806) * ''Gypsum as a Manure'' (1808) * ''Breeding and Management of Live-Stock'', a standard work (2 vols., 1809) * ''Rutlandshire'' (1809) and ''Huntingdonshire'' (1811) in the

General View of Agriculture county surveys The ''General View'' series of county surveys was an initiative of the Board of Agriculture of Great Britain, of the early 1790s. Many of these works had second editions, in the 1810s. The Board, set up by Sir John Sinclair, was generally a pro ...

Notes

References

;Attribution * *

External links

WorldCat publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parkinson, Richar 1748 births 1815 deaths 18th-century English farmers People from Lincolnshire 19th-century English farmers