Charles Parker (New Zealand politician)

Charles Parker JP (4 March 1809 – 29 June 1898) was a New Zealand politician and a carpenter.

Parker was born at Newent, Gloucestershire, England, on 4 March 1809. His parents were Sarah Potter (17 November 1783 – 16 July 1876), a weaver, and her husband, Edmund Parker (2 November 1767 – 7 November 1853), a builder. Charles was raised in his mother's home town of Cheltenham, Gloucester. He trained as carpenter and builder. On 6 April 1837, he married his first cousin Hannah Phipps (22 June 1815 – 14 December 1889) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

In 1849 Charles, Hannah and six children sailed on the Kelso to Nelson, New Zealand. The family settled in Motueka, where Charles was soon successful in business, becoming a property developer as well as a builder. He paid for other members of the family to immigrate; Sarah Parker, his 73-year-old mother arrived in 1856, and by 1859 five of his brothers and sisters had emigrated with their families.

Parker had become involved in the political life of the colony. He was a member of the Volunteer Reserves and a justice of the peace. He was active in the Anglican Church until the mid-1860s, when his infant son Henry died before he was baptised, and the Anglican priest refused to bury him in consecrated ground. The local Methodist minister agreed to do so and the family switched churches.

In 1853 Parker was elected to the Nelson Provincial Council as member for Motueka and Massacre Bay, a seat which he held until 1857. He then represented Motueka (1857–69 and 1873–76). He was elected a member of the 2nd New Zealand Parliament as member for Motueka and Massacre Bay (1855–56), resigning in 1856, and later re-elected as member for the renamed Motueka for the 4th and 5th parliaments (1866–75). Parker was a populist opposed to the class system and supported John Perry Robinson's programme of liberalising land purchase to prevent the establishment of large landholdings or latifundia.

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