Joseph Parkes
Joseph Parkes (22 January 1796 โ 11 August 1865) was an English political reformer.
Born into Unitarian Whig circles, Parkes developed an association with the Philosophical Radicals. In 1822 he established a Birmingham solicitor's practice specializing in election law. He was an advocate of legal reform, and active in the local efforts for parliamentary reform. Although he initially opposed the formation of the Birmingham Political Union, and remained less radical than Thomas Attwood, the BPU's founder, Parkes worked with it during the period of agitation for the Reform Act โ acting in effect as an intermediary between radicals and whigs.
In 1833 Henry Brougham appointed Parkes secretary of the commission on municipal corporations; he combined this work with a successful Westminster practice as a parliamentary solicitor. In 1847 ill-health prompted his retirement to work on literary projects.
Life
Born in
Parkes was articled to a London solicitor, and became one of the young men who surrounded Jeremy Bentham. When his apprenticeship was finished Parkes returned to Birmingham, and worked as a solicitor from 1822 to 1833.[2] During this time he came into association with American writer, critic, activist, and fellow Benthamite, John Neal, with whom he maintained a correspondence after Neal's return to the United States.[3]
In January 1828 he was secretary to the committee for getting the
The government found it convenient, during the agitation which followed the first rejection of the Reform Bill (8 October 1831), to use Parkes as a means of communication with the avowed leaders of the union in Birmingham. He drafted resolutions for the union, and perhaps at the time thought violent conflict was possible. When
In 1833 the government made Parkes secretary of the commission on municipal corporations, and he moved to 21 Great George Street,
In 1847 Parkes became a taxing-master in chancery, and retired from active political work. He died on 11 August 1865, at home in Wimpole Street, London.[1][2]
Works
He published in 1828 a History of the Court of Chancery, and collected the materials for a memoir on
Family
At the age of twenty-eight Parkes married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Joseph Priestley the younger (son of Joseph Priestley the theologian). Their daughter Bessie Rayner Parkes married in 1868 Louis Belloc, and was known a writer on literary and social subjects.[2] Their children Marie Belloc Lowndes and Hilaire Belloc were both also known as writers.
References
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21356. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ a b c d e f g Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885โ1900. .
- OCLC 1056818562.