The American Link.

Since the ‘five daughters and severn sonnes’ produced by Edmund Parker in the early 16th C, the family has dispersed from Lancashire, with each generation, to other parts of Britain and then around the world. Some of those migrations are recorded, while for others the link to the ‘Parkers of Browsholme’ has been lost. However the most significant migration for the family was to the then Colony of Virginia in 1680 and this link to Browsholme is described below:

Robert Parker of Browsholme (b.1527) married (1554), Elizabeth Chadderton of Nuthurst, Lancs. They produced four sons, the youngest being William Parker who went to Cornwall about 1580. Robert’s father Edmund (c.1490 –1547) bought a new lease of Nether Browsholme in 1507 and for his wife, Elizabeth, the heiress of John Redmayne, he built the present house. (see Genealogy for earlier Parker ancestors).

William Parker (1560-1631) now Archdeacon of Cornwall married Joan Panchard (m.1589) and they had a two sons the eldest being James Parker.

James Parker (1590-1672) the eldest son of William, married Katherine Buller, of Shillington Cornwall on 12th December 1616; Richard was the 9th child and the 4th son of this marriage that produced 21 children!

Richard Parker (1630-1677 the ‘emigrant’) emigrated to the Colony of Virginia, arriving in Nasemond County in 1647 it is said due to a price being put on his head by Oliver Cromwell, for his support of Charles I and the royalist army.

I am grateful to Waunita Powell who has carried out detailed research into yhe confusion caused by the coincidence of three Richard Parkers residing in VA. during the mid 17thC. She has determined that Richard Parker (of Browsholme) married Mary Perkins a widow and former Londoner:

"Richard, ye 9th, Dr. of Physick went to Virginy, married a Londoner and had issue six children, liveth upon Saint James River, in ye Uplands of Virginy, hath been High Sheriff of sd County."

As time permits I would like to produce a family tree of Richards descendants; in the meantime Ican do no better than link to Waunita Powells manuscript. 'The Three Parkers of VA'. here

William Parker