Parker, John (d. 1564), master of the rolls in Ireland, was a Kentishman who came to Ireland in 1540 as private secretary to Lord Deputy St Leger (qv). He may have been the John Parker, scholar of King's College, Cambridge, who graduated in 1522. He was appointed an usher in the exchequer in 1540 and constable of Dublin Castle in 1544, but these offices were secondary to his role as one of St Leger's most trusted advisers. Closely associated with the lord deputy's policies, he acted as his representative both to the English government and to the community of the Pale.
His loyalty was rapidly rewarded from the spoils made available by the confiscation of monastic properties. In 1542 St Leger procured for him a lease of the extensive estates of Selskar Abbey, near Wexford town, and over the following three years this was followed by leases of the monasteries of the Dominicans at Rosbercon and the Augustinians at Clonmore and Holmpatrick, all at well below the surveyed value. Parker's acquisition of these leaseholds reflected an ethos in which highly placed officials, including the lord deputy and the vice-treasurer, Sir William Brabazon (qv), freely diverted the profits of undervalued crown lands to their own use. Parker, one of the largest beneficiaries, resold or sublet much of his land, and by doing so on generous terms was able to gain respect and acceptance within the community of the Pale. By the 1560s he had become one of the Palesmen's most effective spokesmen.
Parker's career was closely tied to that of his patron, and the death of Henry VIII brought about a period of instability for St Leger that was reflected in a sequence of disfavour and reinstatement for Parker. He was excluded from influence when St Leger was replaced by Sir Edward Bellingham (qv) in May 1548, and occupied himself with a colonising scheme centred on Carrickfergus; recovered his status when St Leger returned in 1550; improved it under Sir James Croft (qv), becoming master of the rolls in December 1552; then lost it again until Mary succeeded and St Leger returned as deputy once more in 1553 and he was appointed to the council. In the following year the English privy council initiated an inquiry into the increasing cost of governing Ireland, headed by Sir William Fitzwilliam (qv). By the autumn of 1554 Fitzwilliam had prepared a series of reports indicting St Leger and his close associates. Parker was among those summoned to London and imprisoned for a brief period.
The appointment of the earl of Sussex (qv) as lord deputy in April 1556 saw him reinstated in the administration, and for the next few years he was a regular nominee on government commissions. In 1559 he represented Trim in parliament and was appointed chief sergeant of Connacht, and in 1560 he adjudicated a dispute between the earls of Desmond (qv) and Ormond (qv). But the demands of Sussex's government, with its large garrison and its unprecedented need for supplies, led to an increasing burden of taxation, and the Palesmen successfully agitated for a commission of inquiry into the abuse of cess.
Parker actively cooperated in this resistance and was suspected of having managed the systematic collection of complaints against Sussex. He was divested of his farms and livings by Sussex, interrogated by the Irish council in the last months of 1562 and censured with the approval of the queen who sent instructions to the Irish council that he was to be ‘reformed and taught to know his faults’ (CSPI, 1509–73, 206). He did, however, retain his office and was restored to the council when Sussex was recalled and Sir Nicholas Arnold (qv), who had headed the commission of inquiry, was appointed lord justice in May 1564.
Parker died in July 1564. His involvement in the life of the community had not been confined to politics: his entrepreneurial ventures had continued throughout the 1550s. In 1552 he and a group of associates were given permission to fish the Bann; in 1555 he received permission to transport wood from Liverpool to Ireland for the building of windmills; and in 1559 he established a millinery and was granted a license to export wool.