Agricultural History Review, Volume 63 Part 1 (2015), p. 177

This is a book with an unusual structure. The first 22 pages describe the Parker family who lived in north Cumberland from at least the first half of the seventeenth century; holding farms (inter alia) in Wreay and High Hesket along the main road (now A6) from Penrith to Carlisle. One part of the family turned up in the Stockport area in 1791 and proceeded to generate substantial fortunes from the textile trade; the bulk of the narrative relates to these activities. From about 1820, the men increasingly invested in commercial property in Manchester and country houses in Cumberland. So far, so normal.

The author (formerly of the University of Ulster) was drawn to the story by the chance purchase of one of the former Parker homes together with the discovery of a family history put together by a member of the Parker family. The first section therefore is largely based upon this family story and so is not necessarily Roebuck’s own narrative. To my mind this is a limitation, because half-way through this family depiction we discover that the Mary Nicholson who, in 1696, married Thomas Parker (1678–1760) was the niece of Dr William Nicholson, Bishop of Carlisle, later Archbishop of Cashel, whilst her brother was the Joseph Nicholson, who in 1777 (together with Richard Burn) published the enduring History and antiquities of the counties of Westmorland and Cumberland. We might well wonder about the other women who married into this family; who their antecedents might have been; to what networks the Parker men consequently had access. As with most family histories, we get almost no information about the families into which sisters and daughters married.

The bulk of the narrative concerns the commercial activities of various grandsons and great-grandsons of Thomas and Mary Parker who became involved in textiles and for which, it appears, there is a substantial archive held at Carlisle. As with the first part of the book, we are given an overview against which to set the Parkers’ activities although this necessarily limits the space available to discuss those complex and varied businesses. Consequently, the reader can be left uncertain as to whether the Parkers were actually manufacturing or acting as middlemen. (The discussion of calico printing gives the impression that the work was done on behalf of the Parkers, for they lament that they cannot control the quality of the products.) Indeed, it is difficult to envisage how these men might have gained sufficient expertise in all the branches of manufacturing to which reference is made. However, whether as manufacturers or middlemen, the Parkers were to move onto the international stage with goods being shipped to both South and North America as well as around the Mediterranean, and here there is some very interesting detail. In fact, there is a lot of material here to interest us: the men depicted lived complex lives. As so often appears to have been the case, many of them were so busy making money they never got round to marriage, so that the second generation generally died without direct heirs. And make money is what the Parkers certainly did, with the result that by 1820 they were building large houses in the textile areas; subsequently moving onto country houses in Cumberland where they are linked with Warwick Bridge, Skirwith Castle and Petteril Green. Thomas Parker (1784–1828) was particularly active, with substantial homes at Ardwick Green (then a pleasant suburb of Manchester) and Warwick Hall (to the east of Carlisle), although a more lasting legacy were his entrepreneurial efforts in rebuilding what is now known as the Northern Quarter in Manchester. The story of the Parkers is worth telling. In many respects it is typical of the north west of England in the century from about 1780 but, it is only if enough such narratives are written that we know what the norm actually was. In so far as it leaves us wanting to know more, this is a good book and good value for the money.