Parker


Select Parker Surname Genealogy

Parker comes from the Old French parquier, meaning "keeper of the park."  Parker was also a nickname for a gamekeeper. 

Select Parker Resources on The Internet
England.  There were two early Parker lines:
  • One Parker family can trace their ancestry to the 13th century when they were park keepers to John of Gaunt in Hodder valley in Lancashire.  Their home of Brownsholme Hall, still with the Parker family, is the oldest surviving family home in Lancashire.
  • Another early Parker family was to be found at Bulwell on the Derbyshire/Yorkshire border in the 14th century.  A branch of this family later moved to Staffordshire and prospered in the legal profession. Baron Parker of Macclesfield became Lord Chancellor in 1718 but was convicted of corruption and ended his life in a debtor's prison.
The Parker name spread mainly to midland counties, to Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire.  By the 1500's there were also other Parkers in Lancashire, for instance in Burnley and Whalley.  Robert Parker, born in the Forest of Bowland in the early 1700's, moved across the Pennines to Halifax where he became a well-known local lawyer.  His home in Halifax was Clare Hall.  The 19th century distribution of Parkers showed very much a northern bias to the name.

Select Parker Names

Matthew Parker was Archbishop of Canterbury in 1559 and a leader of Anglican thought in his time.  He was called "Nosey Parker" because he kept poking his nose into matters that should not concern him.
Quanah Parker, born of a Comanche father and a captured white woman from a pioneer family, was the last of the Comanche war chiefs.
George and Charles Parker founded their board game company Parker Brothers in 1888.   Their best-known game was Monopoly which came out during the Depression.
Dorothy Parker, born Dorothy Rothschild, was an American writer and critic noted for her acerbic wit, associated with The New Yorker and the Algonquin Round Table.
Bonnie Parker was the Bonnie in Bonnie and Clyde, the 1930's outlaws later portrayed in film.
Charlie Parker was the great jazz saxophonist, a founder of be-bop in the 1940's.
Alan Parker is a British film director.

Select Parkers Today
  • 110,000 in the UK (most numerous in Yorkshire)
  • 103,000 in America (most numerous in Texas)
  • 46,000 elsewhere (most numerous in Australia)

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For other surnames check the companion selectsurname.com site where there are to be found the history and genealogy for more than 500 surnames.

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