Thomas Lister Parker

Thomas Lister Parker (1779–1858) was an English antiquary.

Born at Browsholme Hall, Yorkshire (now in Lancashire), England on 27 September 1779, he was the eldest of the eight sons of John Parker of Browsholme, by his wife Beatrix, daughter of Thomas Lister of Gisburne Park, Yorkshire (but now Lancashire). He was educated at the Clitheroe Royal Grammar School under the mastership of the Rev. Thomas Wilson, B.D., and at Christ's College, Cambridge.

On the death of his father on 25 May 1797 he succeeded to the Browsholme estate. In 1804 and 1805 he made alterations to the sixteenth century Browsholme Hall, rebuilding the west wing, and afterwards he made additions under the superintendence of Sir Jeffrey Wyatville. Parker had a taste for landscape gardening, and between 1797 and 1810 spent large sums in laying out his grounds. In the house he displayed a collection of antiquities and pictures, partly formed by himself. He had a large series of drawings and prints bought during a tour on the continent in 1800 and 1801, at Moscow, Venice, and Paris; a large collection of drawings of castles and manor-houses by John Chessell Buckler, and portfolios of his own drawings. He also possessed pictures of the Flemish school and works of James Northcote and Thomas Gainsborough.

Parker was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1801, and afterwards Fellow of the Royal Society. He was High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1804. He had the sinecure post of ‘Trumpeter to the Queen,’ and claimed fallaciously the office, as hereditary in his family for many generations, of ‘Bowbearer of the Forest of Bowland,’ Lancashire.

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