Author: PARKER, Arthur
Biography:
PARKER, Arthur (b 1787: ancestry.com)
Pseudonym "a peasant"
The son of Isaac and Sarah Parker, he was baptised at Frampton Cotterell, Gloucestershire, on 4 Feb. 1787. Nothing is known of his education and he spent the whole of his working life in Cheltenham, where he married Mary Potter (b 1786) on 25 Nov. 1811. They had at least five children, all of whom were living with their parents at the time of the census of 1841. Parker was a builder but not a very successful one: his financial difficulties are reflected in two or three bankruptcies and various public disputes with his creditors. He was active in local affairs and local politics. In 1831, citing his record of contributions to the community and the claims of “a large family in great need,” he put his name forward for the position of Assistant Overseer (of the poor); when he lost the election he set up in business anew as an estate agent. His writings take up local political issues and local characters. His short Poems on Different Subjects (1827) consists of three poems on recent or imminent deaths, written at the request of friends; A Sublime Poem on Banking (1838) was likewise written “at the request of a Gentleman.” In 1843, having failed to win the prize offered for an essay on providing employment for the “industrious and unemployed poor,” he published his second-place essay himself. In 1845 he accused his son Arthur, a carpenter and joiner, of assault but the case was dismissed as “a family dispute.” He was still alive in 1850 but his name does not appear in the 1851 census. He might be the Arthur Parker buried at St. Mary’s, Almondsbury, on 1 Sept. 1850. (ancestry.com 20 June 2025; findmypast.com 20 June 2025; Hampshire Chronicle 26 Feb. 1827; Cheltenham Chronicle 14 Dec. 1820, 23 June 1831, 4 Aug. 1831, 9 Feb. 1843, 9 Oct. 1845; Cheltenham Journal 6 May 1850) HJ