Sir Thomas Parker, PC (1695–1784) was an English barrister and judge,

Privy Counsellor The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a privy council, formal body of advisers to the British monarchy, sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises Politics of the United King ...

and

Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer The Chief Baron of the Exchequer was the first "baron" (meaning judge) of the English Exchequer of Pleas. "In the absence of both the Treasurer of the Exchequer or First Lord of the Treasury, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it was he who pre ...

Life

He was a relative of

Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, (23 July 1666 – 28 April 1732) was an English Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1705 to 1710. He was Lord Chief Justice from 1710 to 1718 and acted briefly as one of the regents befo ...

the Lord Chancellor, came from a

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

family, and was born about 1695. Educated at

Lichfield Grammar School Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of B ...

, Parker entered the office of a London solicitor, Charles Salkeld. There he had as colleagues Philip Yorke and John Strange, and Yorke used influence in Parker's favour consistently from then on. Parker was admitted a student of the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

Admissions Record of The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple for Sir Thomas Parker: http://www.innertemplearchives.org.uk/detail.asp?id=7790 on 3 May 1718,

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

on 19 June 1724, received the degree of

serjeant-at-law A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writ ...

on 17 May 1736, and was made

king's serjeant A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writ ...

on 4 June 1736. On 7 July 1738 he was appointed a

Baron of the Exchequer The Barons of the Exchequer, or ''barones scaccarii'', were the judges of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas. The Barons consisted of a Chief Baron of the Exchequer and several puisne (''inferior'') barons. When Robert Shute was a ...

. On 21 April 1740 he was moved to the

Court of Common Pleas A court of common pleas is a common kind of court structure found in various common law jurisdictions. The form originated with the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, which was created to permit individuals to press civil grievances against one ...

, and subsequently was knighted, 27 November 1742, and returned to the court of exchequer as

Lord Chief Baron The Chief Baron of the Exchequer was the first "baron" (meaning judge) of the English Exchequer of Pleas. "In the absence of both the Treasurer of the Exchequer or First Lord of the Treasury, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it was he who p ...

on 29 November 1742. Here, though Yorke as Lord Hardwicke tried to get him the post of

Chief Justice of the Common Pleas The chief justice of the Common Pleas was the head of the Court of Common Pleas, also known as the Common Bench or Common Place, which was the second-highest common law court in the English legal system until 1875, when it, along with the other ...

, he remained for a longer period than any of his predecessors. In November 1772, Parker resigned on a pension of £2,400 a year, and was sworn of the privy council 20 November. He died at

South Weald South Weald is a mainly farmland and park settlement in the Borough of Brentwood in Essex, England. The civil parish of South Weald was absorbed by Brentwood Urban District in 1934. In 1931 the civil parish had a population of 6370. South Weald con ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, on 29 December 1784, and was buried in the family vault at Park Hall, Staffordshire.

Works

Parker published, in 1776, a volume of ''Reports of Revenue Cases, 1743 to 1767''.

Family

Parker married: # Anne, daughter of James Whitehall of

Pipe Ridware Mavesyn Ridware is a village and civil parish in Lichfield District, Staffordshire, England. The parish had a population of 1,048 in 2001, increasing to 1,128 at the 2011 Census. It includes the villages of Hill Ridware, Rake End, Pipe Ridware a ...

, in Staffordshire, by whom he had two sons: George, the second, was father of Sir William Parker; and # Martha, daughter of Edward Strong of

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

, by whom he had two daughters. The elder daughter, Martha, married, on 5 June 1783, Sir John Jervis, and died without issue on 8 February 1816.

References

;Attribution 1695 births 1784 deaths Members of the Middle Temple 18th-century English judges Chief Barons of the Exchequer Justices of the Common Pleas Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain English barristers Serjeants-at-law (England) {{England-politician-stub