Poets, 1810, x. 58). Warburton, in a letter to Birch, calls Macclesfield a Mæcenas (Nichols, Illustr. of Lit. ii. 117). He entertained for many years at Shirburn Castle William Jones [q. v.], the mathematician, and father of Sir William Jones [q. v.], the orientalist, and studied mathematics with his son. Thomas Phelps [q. v.], the astronomer, began life as a stable-boy in his service. Young inscribed to him his ‘Paraphrase on part of the Book of Job’ (Chalmers, English Poets, xiii. 408–13), while Zachary Pearce, afterwards bishop of Rochester, dedicated to him his editions of ‘Cicero de Oratore,’ 1716, and of ‘Longinus de Sublimitate,’ 1724. He laid the foundation of the fine library at Shirburn Castle, where a complete series of his notebooks during his chancellorship is preserved.
He married, on 23 April 1691, Janet, second daughter and coheiress of Charles Carrier of Wirksworth, Derbyshire, by whom he had one son, George, second earl of Macclesfield [q. v.], and one daughter, Elizabeth, who married on 7 April 1720 William Heathcote of Hursley, Hampshire (created a baronet on 16 Aug. 1733), and died on 21 Feb. 1747. The countess survived her husband, and died on 23 Aug. 1733.
Five portraits of Macclesfield—three by Kneller, one by John Riley, and one by Closterman—are at Shirburn Castle. There are several engravings by Vertue, Simon, Kyte, and Faber, after Kneller. The authorship of ‘A Memorial relating to the Universities’ (Gutch, Collectanea Curiosa, 1781, ii. 53–75) has been attributed to Macclesfield on insufficient grounds. A few of his letters to Philip Yorke are printed in Harris's ‘Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke.’ The Earl of Ashburnham possesses a number of original letters addressed to Macclesfield by many of the most distinguished persons in the reigns of Anne and the first and second Georges (Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. App. iii. 12). A volume of Macclesfield's correspondence is preserved among the Stowe MSS. in the British Museum.
[Luttrell's Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs, 1857, v. 428, 542, 560, 561, 571, vi. 118, 551, 564, 571, 572, 573, 574, 691; Harris's Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, 1847, i. 66–7, 72, 76, 95, 98, 171–80, 185, 221–3, 336, iii. 317, 565; Lord Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors, 1857, vi. 1–58; Foss's Judges of England, 1864, viii. 44–52; Parkes's Hist. of the Court of Chancery, 1828, pp. 291–300; Sanders's Orders of the High Court of Chancery, 1845, i. 448–60, 461–70; Law and Lawyers, 1840, ii. 61–7; Oldmixon's Hist. of England, 1735, pp. 436, 660, 758–60, 760–1, 762–3; Lord Mahon's Hist. of England, 1839, ii. 106–7; Hunter's Rise of the Old Dissent exemplified in the Life of Oliver Heywood, 1842, p. 179; Hutton's Hist. of Derby, 1791, pp. 284–90; Garth's Dispensary, canto ii.; Sleigh's Hist. of the Ancient Parish of Leek, 1883; Ormerod's Hist. of Cheshire, 1882, i. 659; Walpole's Cat. of Royal and Noble Authors, 1806, iv. 159–63; Noble's Continuation of Granger's Biogr. Hist. of England, 1806, iii. 190–2; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. of the Eighteenth Century, 1812–15, vols. i. ii. iii. iv. vi. viii.; Edwards's Libraries and Founders of Libraries, 1865, pp. 327–67; Georgian Era, 1833, ii. 274–6; Doyle's Official Baronage, 1886, ii. 433–4; Collins's Peerage, 1812, iv. 190–193; Foster's Peerage, 1883, p. 460; Martin's Masters of the Bench of the Inner Temple, 1883, p. 59; Townsend's Cat. of Knights, 1660–1760, p. 53; Countess of Macclesfield's Scattered Notices of Shirburn Castle, 1887; Haydn's Book of Dignities, 1890; Official Return of Lists of Members of Parliament, pt. ii. pp. 2, 10; Reliquary, vii. 129–36 (with portrait), xxi. 128, 191, xxii. 139, xxv. 80; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. xii. 329, 474, 8th ser. iv. 206, 354, v. 30.]
PARKER, Sir THOMAS (1695?–1784), judge, a relative of Lord-chancellor Macclesfield, came of a Staffordshire family, and was born about 1695. Educated at Lichfield grammar school, he afterwards entered the office of a London solicitor named Salkeld, where he was the companion of Philip Yorke, afterwards Lord-chancellor Hardwicke, and of John Strange, afterwards master of the rolls. From the former he received steady patronage through life. He was admitted a student of the Middle Temple on 3 May 1718, called to the bar on 19 June 1724, received the degree of serjeant-at-law on 17 May 1736, and was made king's serjeant on 4 June 1736; and on 7 July 1738 he was appointed a baron of the exchequer. Thence, on 21 April 1740, he was removed to the common pleas, and subsequently was knighted, 27 Nov. 1742, and returned to the court of exchequer as chief baron on 29 Nov. 1742. Here, in spite of Lord Hardwicke's endeavours to procure for him the chief-justiceship of the common pleas, he remained for a longer period than any of his predecessors, till, in November 1772, he resigned on a pension of 2,400l. a year, and was sworn of the privy council 20 Nov. He died at South Weald, Essex, on 29 Dec. 1784, and was buried in the family vault at Park Hall, Staffordshire. He published, in 1776, a volume of ‘Reports of Revenue Cases, 1743 to 1767,’ and left the reputation of having been a useful judge. He married, first, Anne, daughter of James Whitehall of Pipe Ridware, in Staffordshire, by whom he had two sons, George, the second, being father of Sir William Parker (1781–1866) [q. v.]; and, secondly, Martha, daughter of Edward Strong of Greenwich, by whom he had two daughters. The
