PARKER, Sir Philip, 3rd Bt. (1682-1741), of Erwarton, Suff.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1715 - 1734

Family and Education

b. 23 Mar. 1682, o.s. of Sir Philip Parker, 2nd Bt., by Mary, da. of Samuel Fortrey of Kew, Surr. and Byall Fen, Cambs. educ. C.C.C. Oxf. 1698. m. 11 July 1715, Martha, da. of William East of the M. Temple, 2da. suc. fa. as 3rd Bt. c.1700; to Wilts. estate of his uncle, Calthorpe Long 1729, assuming the name of Parker-a-Morley Long.

Offices Held

Biography

For nearly 20 years Parker sat as a Whig for Harwich, where his estate of Erwarton, only two miles away, gave him a natural interest. In 1716 he obtained the reversion of a lease of the duty on sixpenny writs in the court of Chancery for 41 years and in 1717 he and his fellow Member, Thomas Heath, were granted a 31 year lease of the crown property in Harwich.1 In 1730 his political career and grievances were outlined by his brother-in-law, Lord Egmont, who complained that

no man in England had deserved better of this Government, and no man was treated worse. That his merit even exceeded that of any other man’s. That in Queen Anne’s time, while yet a young man, and not come to his fortune, he stood for the county of Suffolk against two Tories, Sir Thomas Hanmer and Sir Robert Davers and though he lost it, yet showed so great interest in his county that he polled two thousand single votes. That when the first plot against the late King broke out, he presented an association in the defence of the Hanover succession, signed by the well affected of his county, which their representatives in Parliament, nor even their lord lieutenant of the county, my Lord Cornwallis, through fear of the times, durst not do; that he presented also an association from the town of Harwich, even while my Lord Bolingbroke was recorder there; that afterwards he got that lord turned out, and my Lord Orford chosen recorder in his room; that ever since he was in Parliament he stuck to his principle, and never opposed the Court in anything except in the peerage bill, which he voted against for this King’s sake, against whom it was levelled, the Act for repealing my Lord Bolingbroke’s attainder, which he believes the Court now thinks he was right in doing, and in the late bill to prevent bribery and corruption, which as a lover of his country he was obliged to do; that his zeal in all was so remarkable that he has been accused of being a pensioner, for people could not imagine how otherwise a gentleman could be so zealous and steady for a Government under whom he never enjoyed nor sought for a place. That all the reward for his zeal and incredible expense for the service of his country, and the Hanover succession, and in modelling Harwich, a Jacobite town, to become honest and loyal, has been a constant endeavour of the Government to undermine his natural interest in his own borough.

Parker himself was so disgruntled by his treatment that in 1730 he supported an opposition bill excluding pensioners from the House, voted with the Opposition on the army in 1732, and absented himself from the divisions on the excise bill. However, he attended the meeting of ministerial supporters called by Walpole to rally his party after the withdrawal of the bill.2 Next year he voted with the Government on the repeal of the Septennial Act. Retiring from Parliament in 1734 owing to declining health, he died 20 Jan. 1741.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

  • 1. Cal. Treas. Bks. xxx. 88; xxxi. 315.
  • 2. HMC Egmont Diary, i. 15-16, 56, 365, 447. He also voted against the Government on Lord Cadogan* in 1717.