Joseph Parkes

Joseph Parkes (22 January 1796 – 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 – 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.

Born in Warwick on 22 January 1796, he was younger son of John Parkes, manufacturer, a close friend of Samuel Parr and Basil Montagu, in a circle that included William Field. After Warwick grammar school, he went as his elder brother Josiah Parkes had done to be educated at Greenwich in the school of Charles Burney. He then spent some time at Glasgow University, studying under George Jardine initially.

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. In January 1828 he was secretary to the town's committee for getting the East Retford seats transferred to Birmingham, and during 1830 spent time opposing a scheme for Birmingham grammar school, which had been introduced in the House of Lords. From the introduction of the Great Reform Bill he took an active part in Birmingham politics, though he did not at first openly join Thomas Attwood and the Birmingham Political Union. He kept up a constant correspondence with George Grote, Francis Place, and other radicals in London.

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