Nicholas Parker (MP)

Parker is first mentioned as commanding the soldiers on board Henry Ughtred's galleon Leicester in Edward Fenton's voyage in 1582 and afterwards served in the army in the Low Countries.[2][4] He was Sheriff of Sussex, in 1586-7 and 1593-4.[3] He became deputy lieutenant of Sussex in 1587 and was knighted by Lord Willoughby in 1588.[2][5] Parker was master of the ordnance for Willoughby's forces In France in 1589, and was dispatched to Brittany in 1594. He was elected MP for Sussex in 1597.[3] In 1597 he commanded a company of troops in the islands' voyage under Essex, and in October of that year was appointed to command in Sussex, on threat of invasion.[2] In 1598 he was appointed deputy lieutenant of Cornwall and governor of Pendennis Castle. In 1602 he was named in the charter of the Virginia Company as one of the adventurers, and another of them, Adrian Moore, married his daughter, Anne.[2] He was governor of Plymouth from 1601 to 1603, succeeding Sir Ferdinando Gorges.[2]

Parker married three times.[1]

• He married firstly, around 20 January 1573,[6] Jane, daughter of Sir William Courtenay (d. 1557) of Powderham and Elizabeth, daughter of John Paulet, 2nd Marquess of Winchester by his first wife, Elizabeth Willoughby;[7]
• He married secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of John Baker;[1]

By his first two marriages he had no issue.

• He married thirdly, Catherine, daughter of John Temple of Stowe, Buckinghamshire, by whom he had five sons and two daughters:[1]

• Sir Thomas Parker, married Philadelphia, daughter of Henry Lennard, 12th Baron Dacre.[1]
• John Parker
• Robert Parker
• Nicholas Parker
• Henry Parker, the Civil War pamphleteer.
• Anne Parker, married firstly, Adrian Moore of Odiham, Hampshire and secondly, Sir John Smith.[1]
• Mary Parker

Parish church of St Mary the Virgin, Willingdon, East Sussex

He died 9 March 1620 at the age of 73 and was buried in the family chapel in Willingdon church.[3] Following his death, a monument was erected in the Willingdon parish church, showing an effigy of him and his three wives.[8][9] It is one of a group of monuments to the Parker family spanning nearly 150 years.

• Borman, T. (3 January 2008) [First Published 2004]. "Parker, Sir Nicholas (d. 1619)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21328. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Burke, John; Burke, John Bernard (1841). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland, and Scotland (2nd ed.). London: Printed for Scott, Webster, and Geary.
• Foster, Joseph, ed. (1887). London Marriage Licences, 1521-1869. From Excerpts by the Late Colonel Chester, D.C.L. London: Bernard Quaritch.
• Fuidge, N. M. (1981). "Ughtred, Henry (by 1534-aft. Oct. 1598), of Southampton and Ireland". In Hasler, P. W. (ed.). Members. The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1558–1603. historyofparliamentonline.org.
• Laughton, John Knox (1895). "Parker, Nicholas" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 43. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 264–265.
• Llewellyn, Nigel (2014). "East Sussex Church Monuments - 1530 to 1830 - Archive of Photographs: Willingdon, St. Mary the Virgin". Sussex Record Society. sussexrecordsociety.org. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
• R.C.G. (1981). "Parker, Sir Nicholas (1547-1620), of Ratton and Willingdon, Suss.". In Hasler, P.W. (ed.). The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1558–1603. historyofparliamentonline.org.
• Shaw, W.A.; Burtchaell, B.D. (1906). The Knights of England: A Complete Record from the Earliest Time to the Present Day of the Knights of All the Orders of Chivalry in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of Knights Bachelors, Incorporating a Complete List of Knights Bachelors Dubbed in Ireland. II. London: Sherrat and Hughes.
• Swales, R.J.W. (1982). "Parker, Thomas II (by 1527-80), of Ratton, Willingdon, Suss.". In Bindoff, S.T. (ed.). The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558. historyofparliamentonline.org.
• Vivian, J. L. (1895). The Visitations of the County of Devon, Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564, to 1620, with additions by J. L. Vivian. Exeter: H.S. Eland.

Wikisource has the text of the 1885–1900 Dictionary of National Biography's article about Nicholas Parker.

• Monument for Sir Nicholas Parker, St Mary the Virgin, Willingdon at flickr.com
• Llewellyn, Nigel. East Sussex Church Monuments - 1530 to 1830 - Archive of Photographs: Willingdon, St. Mary the Virgin at sussexrecordsociety.org