The Gentleman's Daughter (69 page)

MS: single letter LRO, DDB Ac 7886/254 (MS span: 1748).

Mrs A. Cooper
, Southampton Buildings, London

The precise social status of this worldly correspondent is unknown.

MS: single letter LRO, DDB/72/73 (MS span: 1781).

James Cowgill
, Cambridge

This cleric was the son of the vicar of Downham and subsequently Clitheroe, Lancashire. He went up to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1732, and became a fellow in 1739. He was another admirer of the unmarried Miss Parker of Browsholme, and fancied himself as a poet. By 1743 he was appointed Vicar of Clitheroe. However, other letters of the period report him pursuing a small college living near Winchester, where it was said the fruit of the apricot tree growing by the house amounted to more than the yearly value of the living. His poverty was something of a running joke amongst the network: ‘Mr Cowgill is prouder and prouder since she [his wife] proves with child I fancy he is to do the office of a midwife for it will save money.’

MS: single letter LRO, DDB Ac 7886/89 (MS span: 1745).

Miss Elizabeth Cromblehome
, Preston, Lancashire (d. 1817)

An exceedingly wealthy heiress, she was probably the granddaughter of the William Comblehome of St Michaels on the Wyre, who was ordained deacon by the Archbishop of York in 1723. There is no evidence to link her with the Preston corn merchants of the same name who registered in Baines's directory of 1825. She purchased furniture from Gillows of Lancaster. Later, through her residence at Churchtown, she became acquainted with the clerical Pedder family.

MS: single letter LRO, DDB/72/459. On her fortune, see DDPd/46 Cromblehome trusteeship, and on her furniture, see WPL, 344/51 Gillows Ledger, 1769–75 (MS span: 1773).

William Curron
, Carleton, Yorkshire

An officer of the vestry of the parish church of Carleton, who wrote concerning the mooted enclosure of Carleton Common. His occupational status is not divulged.

MS: single letter LRO, DDB/72/451 (MS span: 1767).

Benjamin Ferrand
, St Ives, Bingley, Yorkshire (1730–1803)

Only son of Benjamin Ferrand of St Ives (1676–1731) and Sarah (d. 1785), daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Dobson of the vicarage near Bingley. Benjamin Ferrand junior was lord of the manors of Cottingley and Oakworth,
among others in the West Riding. He was a zealous turnpike trustee, a major in Sir George Saville's battalion of militia, Deputy-Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for the West Riding of Yorkshire. Elizabeth Parker gave Ferrand the courtesy title of gamekeeper for the manor of Harden in 1764. Thereafter, he sent her a brace of moor game every season. Although a match was suspected between Ferrand and Beatrix Lister in 1774, it came to nothing and he never married. He was taxed on three male servants in 1780.

MS: two letters LRO, DDB/72/449–50 (MS span: 1764).

Margaret Fielden
, Manchester, Lancashire

Mantua-maker based in Burnley, who travelled in the course of her business.

MS: three letters to Elizabeth Shackleton LRO, DDB Ac 7886/20, 44, 68 (MS span: 1776–78).

Robert Frankland
, Browsholme, Yorkshire

Steward to John Parker, father of Elizabeth Parker.

MS: single letter LRO, DDB Ac 7886/150 (MS span: 1747).

*
William Hill
, Ormskirk, Lancashire

This correspondent is credited with the original recipe for the Parkers' rabies medicine. After Parker's death, Hill went into partnership with a Mr James Berry, selling the potion in Berkeley Square, London. His son, Master Hill, was apprenticed to an attorney in Warrington in 1771. Hill's niece, Miss Smith, was a longstanding friend of Elizabeth Parker's. In the 1770s Miss Smith was forced into mean lodgings in Wigan and Ormskirk, and later into an unhappy marriage with a drunken tradesman, a Mr Knowles of Prescot.

MS: two letters LRO, DDB/72/56 and 475. The London business is referred to in LRO, DDB/81/10 (1770), f. 82 (MS span: 1748–54).

*
Henry Hubbard
, Emmanuel College, Cambridge (
c.
1708–1778)

This cleric was the son of an Ipswich cabinet-maker. He went up to St Catharine's College, Cambridge, in 1724, became a fellow in 1730 and a fellow of Emmanuel in 1732, where he was tutor for many years. He also served as Taxor (a college officer responsible for the regulation of weights and measures) and Registrar. Among other posts, he was ordained deacon of Lincoln in 1730. Hubbard's standing was such that he was painted by Gainsborough. His letters to Robert Parker itemize the young man's college accounts.

MS: five letters LRO, DDB/72/468–72 (MS span: 1744–5).

Anne Lister
, at Chapel Thorp, Wakefield, Yorkshire, and Broughton, Lancashire (1722–55)

This woman was one of the powerful Listers of Gisburn Park, although in her letters she regretted not living at the family seat as in her father's day. It appears that she lived as a guest of various prominent and powerful northern families, such as the Asshetons of Broughton and the Curzons of Kedleston in Derbyshire. The
Listers of Gisburn Park were taxed on six male servants in 1780. They also bought their mahogany from Gillows of Lancaster.

MS: two letters LRO, DDB Ac 7886/186 and 270 (MS span: 1747–49).

*
Lawrence Ormerod of Ormerod
, Burnley, Lancashire (d. 1758)

A gentleman, the son and heir of the Ormerod estate. He was married to Margaret Ormerod of Tunstead, Rossendale, and had four children. He was buried at Burnley. He was taxed on two male servants in 1780.

MS: single letter LRO, DDB Ac 7886/199 (MS span: 1747).

Anne Parker
, Cuerden Hall, near Preston, Lancashire

The self-confident wife of Robert Parker of Cuerden, born Anne Townley of Royle who was on visiting terms with the titled and the fashionable. The Parkers of Cuerden were also customers of Gillows of Lancaster.

MS: six letters LRO, DDB Ac 7886/18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24. (MS span:
c.
1776).

Barbara Parker
(née Fleming), Browsholme, Yorkshire (d. 1813)

The daughter and co-heiress of the baronet Sir William Fleming of Rydal Hall, Westmorland. In 1754, in Lancaster, she married Edward Parker of Browsholme (Arthur Devis painted this couple in 1757). Thereby she became Elizabeth Parker's sister-in-law. Through the Fleming sisters, the Parkers associated with the Wilsons of Dalham Tower and Lord and Lady Leicester of Tarporley, Cheshire.

MS: single letter LRO, DDB Ac 7886/75 (MS span:
c.
1754).

Miss Elizabeth Parker
, Preston, Lancashire

This woman was undoubtedly one of the Parkers of Preston and Cuerden. She was either the sister of Robert Parker of Cuerden (1727–79) or his daughter by Anne Townley of Royle. If the daughter, then she died in 1775. Robert Parker of Cuerden was taxed on six male servants in 1780. He also patronized Gillows of Lancaster.

MS: single letter LRO, DDB/72/1581 (MS span: 1773).

Edward (‘Ned’) Parker
, Farm Hill, Waltham Abbey, Essex (b. 1725)

Robert Parker's cousin. His early successes in manufacturing enabled him to establish his Essex estate. Yet in 1773 he went bankrupt (being registered in the
Gazette
of that year as a bay maker, dealer and chapman.) He married his first wife, Frances Jones of Holborn (Fanny) in 1749, when aged twenty-four, but was widowed in 1763. In 1767 he married his second wife, a Miss Monat of New Bond Street. The Monats were grocers, said to be worth ten thousand pounds, although gossips reported with surprise that the couple never left their counter.

MS: thirty letters LRO, DDB/72/53, 58, 63, 71–2, 474, 476, 478–80, 485–6, 490; and DDB Ac 7886/1–7, 118, 138, 160, 183, 203, 206, 211, 214, 223, 283. For his first marriage, see Guildhall Marriage Licences, 1746–50. On the bankruptcy, refer to
London Gazette
(1773), items 11376, 11392 (MS span: 1745–58).

Edward Parker
, Browsholme, Yorkshire (1731–94)

Elizabeth Parker's only brother. He was educated in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and Cambridge. In adulthood he was Bow-Bearer of the Forest of Bolland and patron of the churches of Bentham, Ingleton, Chapel le Dale and Waddington. Edward Parker's letters date from the 1740s. He broke off personal communication with his sister from 1765 until
c.
1775 on account of her marriage to John Shackleton, although the instrumental contact was maintained through his wife, his steward and Elizabeth's sons, of whom Edward was co-guardian. The Parkers had only one surviving son, John Parker, who married Beatrix Lister. In his obituary of 1795, he was applauded for the ‘dignity and hospitality of an ancient English baron’. Like his sister, he purchased his mahogany from Gillows of Lancaster.

MS: fifteen letters LRO, DDB Ac 7886/80, 81 and 149, 151, 154, 163, 169, 178, 182, 215, 237, 249, 250; LRO, DDB/72/66–7; three letters to Robert Parker LRO, DDB/ 72/57, 487 and 489. Letters survive from Barbara and Edward Parker to their nephew Thomas Parker of Alkincoats, see, for example, LRO, DDB/72/330, 941 and 943. See also, BIHR (1795), Will of Edward Parker, and
Gentleman's Magazine
, 65 (1795), p. 82 (MS span: 1746–95).

John Parker
, Browsholme, Yorkshire (1695–1754)

Father to Elizabeth Parker. John Parker is designated linen-draper in his daughter's baptismal register, see G. W. G. Leveson Gower (ed.),
The Registers of St Peter's, Cornbill, 1667–1774
, Harleyan Society Registers Section,
IV
(1879), p. 35. Freedom records reveal that he was initially trained as a mercer. In 1713, at the age of eighteen, he was apprenticed for seven years to a Thomas Riley, citizen and mercer of London, at a cost of two hundred pounds: CLRO, Freedom Records, CF1/420. He married Elizabeth Southouse, the daughter of an Essex merchant (Henry Southouse of Manuden is described as a wire-drawer in 1723, see CLRO, Freedom Records, CF1/432). In 1728, however, John Parker inherited the Parker family estate through a half-brother and so became master of Browsholme Hall in the West Riding, close to the Lancashire border, and of a substantial estate in Ingleton. Despite their promotion, the family did not remove immediately to Yorkshire; certainly they were still resident in Cornhill when Elizabeth's brother Edward was born in 1731. Exactly how much longer the Parkers remained in London is unclear, although they stayed long enough for their daughter to be confirmed into the Anglican Church by the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Tower of London. Mrs Elizabeth Parker died before her daughter came of age, so Miss Elizabeth Parker was for some years sole mistress of Browsholme and the estate, worth almost five hundred pounds in annual rent. All of John Parker's letters were written as a widower.

MS: twenty-nine letters LRO, DDB Ac 7886/76–9, 87, 102, 146–7, 152–3, 155–6, 217, 222–6, 229, 231, 233, 234, 245, 247–8, 251–2, 291, 293, 297, 300, 306 (MS span: 1747–54).

*
Robert Parker
, Pall Mall, London

A London merchant by repute, he was almost certainly the father of Ned Parker,
Thomas Parker and Bessy Ramsden, and therefore the uncle of Robert Parker of Alkincoats.

MS: single letter to Robert Parker LRO, DDB/72/488 (MS span: 1755).

*
Thomas Parker
, London (d. 1767)

Robert Parker's first cousin and brother of Bessy Ramsden and Ned Parker. He was a stationer and printer. Although none of his letters to Elizabeth survives, her diaries reveal that he furnished her with London newspapers until his premature death in April 1767 of kidney disease.

MS: single letter to Robert Parker LRO, DDB/72/52. His death is mentioned in LRO, DDB/72/202 (29 May 1767), W. Ramsden, Charterhouse, to E. Shackleton, Alkincoats (MS span: 1751).

Thomas Parker
, Winchester, Hampshire (1754–1819)

Eldest son of Elizabeth and Robert Parker of Alkincoats. Writing here from school. As the heir, Parker came into the Alkincoats estate upon his majority in 1775. Despite a mooted career in the church or the army, he took up no profession. Upon his marriage in 1779 to the nineteen-year-old heiress Betty Parker of Newton Hall, Yorkshire, his mother removed definitively to John Shackleton's newly built mansion, Pasture House at Barrowford. An extraordinary amount of the correspondence he received is preserved. Among numerous others, he got letters from Betty his wife, his brother John Parker, his uncle and aunt Edward and Barbara Parker of Browsholme, his cousins John and Beatrix Parker of Marshfield, his children Eliza, Edward and Thomas, and from families such as the Cunliffes of Wycoller, Claytons of Carr, Carrs of Langroyd and Stackhouse, Starkies of Huntroyde, Whitakers of Simonstone, St Clares of Preston and Grindleton, Towneley Parkers of Cuerden, Ferrands of Bingley, the Wiglesworths of Townhead and Thorp, etc.

MS: single letter LRO, DDB Ac 7886/64. For letters to him, see LRO, DDB/72/311–85, 492–979 (MS span: 1768–1819).

Ann Pellet
(née Southouse), London (d. 1776)

Elizabeth Parker's maternal aunt, the daughter of the merchant Henry Southouse of Manuden, Essex, and the widow of Dr Thomas Pellet (?1671–1744), president of the Royal College of Physicians (1735–9). Mrs Pellet was stepmother to Thomas Pellet's daughter from his first marriage, Jane Scrimshire (née Pellet), but it appears that none of her own children survived infancy. Her marital home was in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. During over thirty years of widowhood, she lived with her longtime servant, secretary and companion a Miss M. Bowen. They boarded with quiet, genteel families, many of them relatives, in Ealing, Brentford, Kensington and Westminster. Despite her conscious retirement, Mrs Pellet received visits from Lady Fleming of Rydal and Lady Leicester of Tarporley. At her death Ann donated twenty guineas to Elizabeth Shackleton and various monies to her numerous Southouse nephews, nieces and godchildren. She also bequeathed pieces of silverware to the Scrimshire children, the contents of a cabinet to the Duchess of Kensington, a sable tippet and the crimson damask furniture to
her niece Patsy Box, a mourning ring to her friend Frances Cole, ten pounds to be distributed to ‘the fittest objects of charity’ and all remaining clothes and furniture, plus an annuity of fifteen pounds a year to Miss Bowen.