Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parker, John (1534-1592)
PARKER, JOHN (1534–1592), divine, born in 1534, was originally a member of Peterhouse, Cambridge, but migrated in 1552 to Christ Church, Oxford, whence he graduated B.A. on 26 Jan. 1554–5, and proceeded M.A. on 20 Oct. 1558, incepting on 19 Feb. 1559–60 (Reg. Univ. Oxon. Oxf. Hist. Soc. vol. i.) In 1564 he rejoined his former university, being incorporated M.A., and receiving the degree of D.D. on 12 March 1582–1583.
In 1557 he was collated to the rectory of Shipdham, Norfolk (Blomefield, Norfolk, ed. 1775, v. 1214). In 1560 his friend Richard Cox [q. v.], bishop of Ely, transferred him to the rectory of Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire; in 1565, through the same friendly influence, he was appointed prebendary and, on 21 Oct. 1568, archdeacon of Ely. On 24 Sept. 1570 he was collated to the rectory of Stretham in the Isle of Ely, which, after resigning the living of Fen Ditton (January 1571), he held till his death. He was, in addition, rector of Bluntisham, Huntingdonshire, from 1573.
Bishop Cox, who died on 22 July 1581, bequeathed him 40l., and the see of Ely was offered him. But, like many others, he declined to agree to the conditions with which the offer was accompanied, considering them to be injurious to the revenues and dignity of the church of Ely. The see remained vacant for seventeen years.
Parker died on 26 May 1592, and was buried four days later in the chancel of Stretham Church, within the altar-rails (Bentham, Hist. of Ely, p. 241, gives the inscription on his tomb). He married Winifred, daughter of William Turner, M.D., dean of Wells, the celebrated botanist. By her he had several children: Richard (1572–1629), who is noticed separately; John, born 1574; Peter, born 1576.
He was the author of ‘A Pattern of Pietie, meete for Housholdores, for the better Education of their Families in the Feare of God,’ London, 1592, 8vo (Ames, Typogr. Antiq. ed. Herbert, p. 1180).
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 124; Reg. Univ. Oxon. vol. i. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.); Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Strype's Annals (ed. 1824), vol. iii. pt. i. p. 38, pt. ii. pp. 475–7; Le Neve's Fasti, i. 352, 354; Blomefield's Collect. Cantabr. p. 23; Fuller's Church History (ed. 1837), iii. 242; Wood's Fasti, i. 294; Arber's Transcript of Stationers' Registers, iii. 285; Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica.]