The Right Honourable The Earl of Macclesfield PC FRS
Portrait afterSir Godfrey Kneller (1712).
Lord Chancellor
In office 12 May 1718 – 7 January 1725
Monarch	George I
Prime Minister	SirRobert Walpole(1721–1725)
Preceded by	In Commission
Succeeded by	In Commission
Personal details
Born	(1666-07-23)23 July 1666 Staffordshire,England
Died	28 April 1732(1732-04-28) (aged 65)
Occupation	Politician

Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield,PC, FRS (23 July 1666 – 28 April 1732) was anEnglishWhig politician who sat in theHouse of Commons from 1705 to 1710. He was Lord Chief Justice from 1710 to 1718 and acted briefly as one of theregents before the arrival ofKing George I in Britain. His career ended when he was convicted of corruption on a massive scale and he spent the later years of his life in retirement at his home,Shirburn Castle in Oxfordshire.

Parker was born inStaffordshire, the son of Thomas Parker, an attorney atLeek and his wife Anne, daughter of Robert Venables of Nuneham, Cheshire.Sir Richard Levinge, 1st Baronet, a leading figure in Irish public life for three decades, was his first cousin. He was educated atAdams' Grammar School at Newport, Shropshire,Derby School in 1680 and at Rev. Samuel Ogden's school at Derby. He was admitted atInner Temple in 1684 and atTrinity College, Cambridge as a pensioner in 1685.^[2] On 23 April 1691, he married Janet Carrier, whose sister was the wife of William Anson and mother of the futureAdmiral Lord Anson. He was called to the bar in 1694.^[3] Together they had two children:

• Lady Elizabeth Parker (d. 21 Feb 1747) marriedSir William Heathcote, 1st Baronet. They had six sons and three daughters.
• George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield (circa 1697 – 17 Mar 1764)

Parker was returned as WhigMember of Parliament forDerby at the1705 English general election and was appointed QC and serjeant-at-law andknighted on 9 July 1705. He was returned unopposed for Derby at the1708 British general election. Like other Whigs, he voted for the general naturalization of foreign Protestants in 1709. Being one of the leading Whig lawyers in the House of Commons, he was deeply involved in the moves to impeach Dr Sacheverell. He was appointed to the committee to draw up the articles of impeachment on 14 December 1709. The committee was later given the management of the trial. In 1710 he refused the office ofLord High Chancellor of Great Britain, but was made aPrivy Counsellor. The office ofLord Chief Justice fell vacant in 1710 and the administration wanted a quick replacement. Parker was appointed on 11 March 1710 and vacated his seat in the House of Commons.^[3]

From 1710 to 1718 Parker was involved in the prosecution ofHenry Sacheverell. He made a vehement attack on Sacheverell and the high church clergy. He defended Whig propagandists and harried Tory publicists, including Defoe and Swift, on the slightest suspicion of favouring the Pretender. He spoke against the peace in the Privy Council in April 1713. In June 1714 he was given evidence of the recruiting activity of Jacobite agents which resulted in a price being placed on the Pretender's head.^[3] On 1 August 1714,Queen Anne died, and her successor,King George I, was inHanover, so Baron Parker was designated as one of the regents of Great Britain, Ireland and the realms beyond the seas until the new monarch arrived in Britain. His support for the Hanoverian succession was appreciated byKing George I who reappointed him lord chief justice in 1714, and raised him to the peerage asBaron Parker of Macclesfield in 1716, in which year he purchased, and then commenced to restore,Shirburn Castle in Oxfordshire, which was to be the seat of the house of Macclesfield for the next 300 years. In 1718, because the King could not speak English, Parker read theKing's Speech in theHouse of Lords.

In 1718, Parker became Lord Chancellor, and was given a pension for life. In 1721, he was advanced to the titleEarl of Macclesfield with the additional subsidiary title ofViscount Parker.

In 1724, Parker was implicated in financial irregularities, but he did not resign asLord High Chancellor of Great Britain until 1725. In 1725, he wasimpeached and tried in theHouse of Lords. He was, unanimously, convicted of corruption for taking more than £100,000 in bribes (the equivalent of more than £11,000,000 today). He was fined £30,000 and placed in theTower of London until payment was received. He was also struck off the roll of thePrivy Council. He was a fabulously wealthy man, possibly because of his corruption, but as this money was confiscated, he had no resources to pay a fine. He spent most of the rest of his life at Shirburn Castle. He died inSoho Square, London on 28 April 1732 and was buried at Shirburn.^[3]

Parker was elected aFellow of the Royal Society in 1713. He was a friend ofBernard de Mandeville, whose satiricalFable of the Bees became highly controversial in the 1720s. He was patron of a grammar school built atLeek, his home town. In 1727, he was a pallbearer at the funeral of another friend, SirIsaac Newton.

• Manuscript reference
• 'everything' on-line reference
• document relating to his impeachment.
• How Much Is That Worth Today?

• 1666 births
• 1732 deaths
• Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
• British MPs 1707–1708
• British MPs 1708–1710
• Fellows of the Royal Society
• Lord chancellors of Great Britain
• Lord chief justices of England and Wales
• Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Derby
• English MPs 1705–1707
• Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain
• People from Leek, Staffordshire
• British politicians convicted of corruption
• People educated at Adams' Grammar School
• People educated at Derby School
• People expelled from the Privy Council of Great Britain
• 18th-century regents
• Parker family
• Members of the Parliament of England for Derby
• Politicians from Staffordshire
• Earls of Macclesfield
• Impeached British officials

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from July 2021