A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/Parker (John)
PARKER (JOHN), bookseller in London, (1) The Ball, Paul's Churchyard, 1618 [Sayle, 934]; (2) The Three Pigeons, Paul's Churchyard, 1620-48 (?) 1617-48. Son of George Parker, of Honington, Warwickshire, yeoman. Took up his freedom March 1st, 1617. [Arber, iii. 684.] Parker was associated with Henry Fetherston until 1619, and in 1620 he took over the copyrights of W. Barrett which had previously belonged to Gabriel Cawood and W. Leake, amongst which were Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis and Lylly's Euphues, About this time he bought the shares of several of the adventurers in the Latin stock. Nominated overseer to the will of John Grismond, who died in 1638; Warden of the Company of Stationers, 1641, 1644, 1645; Master of the Company, 1647 and 1648. Died July 30th, 1648. [Smyth's Obituary, p. 26.] His will, an interesting document, was dated October 28th, 1647, and proved on August 16th, 1648. The following stationers received rings: Andrew Crooke, Charles Greene, Francis Egglesfield, Octavian Pullen, Richard and Thomas Whitaker, while Miles Fletcher was nominated one of the overseers. [P.C.C. 124, Essex.]