Thomas Jeffery Parker (1850 - 1897)

Born 17 Oct 1850 in Westminster, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom

Descendants

Died 7 Nov 1897 at age 47 in Warrington, Otago, New Zealand

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Biography

Thomas Parker is Notable.

Thomas Parker was born in Middlesex, England.

Thomas Jeffery Parker was born at 124 Tachbrook Street in London on 17 October 1850, the son of the anatomist William Kitchen Parker. He studied at Clarendon House School and graduated from the University of London in 1868.

At the age of 22, he worked with Thomas Henry Huxley in Huxley's zoological demonstrations, forming a teaching collection and organising laboratory practicals. Huxley's work on crayfish kindled in Parker an interest in crustaceans, and he went on to study the marine "crayfish" (spiny lobsters) of New Zealand, together with his student Josephine Gordon Rich, who later married William Aitcheson Haswell.

On 23 December 1874, Thomas Jeffery Parker married Charlotte Elizabeth Rossell in Bramley, Yorkshire. In 1880, they emigrated to New Zealand. Parker become Professor of Zoology at the University of Otago in Dunedin, succeeding Frederick Hutton. He was also curator of the Otago Museum, and was "the first trained biologist in the colony".

Fin whale displayed in Otago Museum 2010 Parker sent a display of a series of skulls to the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880, which was later reused in the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin. The display used coloured wires and painted bones to show the evolution of the vertebrate skull. Indeed, Parker was noted by a Tuapeka Times correspondent as having a "mania for skeletons...[and] has procured some splendid and interesting specimens of birds and fish." In 1883, Parker obtained a fin whale specimen from Captain William Jackson Barry, who had himself bought and exhibited it in Nelson. The fin whale skeleton is still a central feature of the current Maritime Gallery.

Parker was made a Fellow of the Royal Society on 7 June 1888.

In his later years, Parker suffered from diabetes, and he died on 7 November 1897 at Warrington. After his death, Parker was succeeded at the University of Otago by William Blaxland Benham.

Sources

• "England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:26TP-5MJ : 1 October 2014), Thomas Jeffery Parker, 1850; from "England & Wales Births, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Birth Registration, Westminster St. Margaret, London, England, citing General Register Office, Southport, England.
• "England and Wales Census, 1851," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SG6T-FBY : 9 November 2019), Thomas J Parker in household of William R Parker, St John The Evangelist, Middlesex, England; citing St John The Evangelist, Middlesex, England, p. 33, from "1851 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.
• "England and Wales Census, 1861," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M7LQ-YD4 : 12 September 2020), Thomas Jefffery Parker in household of William Kitchen Parker, London, Middlesex, England; from "1861 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 9, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.
• "England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VBFS-985 : 25 June 2022), Thomas J Parker in entry for William H Parker, 1871.
• "England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2DGJ-ZMQ : 13 December 2014), Thomas Jeffrey Parker, 1874; from "England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1874, quarter 4, vol. 9B, p. 565, Bramley, Yorkshire, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.
• "New Zealand, Civil Records Indexes, 1800-1966," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG6V-BPQ6 : 4 January 2018), Thomas Jeffrey Parker, 1897; citing Death, New Zealand, registration number 1897/2416, Archives of New Zealand, Wellington.
• "New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Probate Records, 1843-1998," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK9V-PK66 : 9 March 2021), Thomas Jeffery Parker, 1897; citing , Dunedin Probate Files, 1851-1907, record number 3142, Archives New Zealand, Auckland Regional Office; FamilySearch digital folder 101169813.
• "England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7X6G-KCN2 : 27 August 2019), Thomas Jeffery Parker, 13 Apr 1898; citing Probate, London, England, United Kingdom, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Great Britain.; FHL microfilm .
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/237060311/thomas-jeffery-parker: accessed 27 October 2022), memorial page for Thomas Jeffery Parker (Oct 1850–Nov 1897), Find a Grave Memorial ID 237060311, citing St. Barnabas Churchyard, Warrington, Dunedin City, Otago, New Zealand; Maintained by Beensker (contributor 47625231).

See Also:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jeffery_Parker