Parkinson, Anthony, historian, b. in England, 1667; d. there 30 January, 1728. In 1692 he was appointed professor of philosophy at the Franciscan Convent of Douai; the following year he was approved for preaching and hearing confessions. He came to the missions in England in 1695 and was president of the Franciscans at Warwick 1698-1701, of Birmingham 1701-10, Definitor of the province 1707-10. Parkinson was also nominal guardian of Worcester 1704-7, of Oxford 1710-13, and twice governed the hidden English Province as provincial 1713-6, and 1722-5. As such he assisted at the General Chapter of the Order in Rome, May, 1723. His chief work is the “Collectanea Anglo-Minoritica, or a Collection of the Antiquities of the English Franciscans, or Friars Minors, commonly called Gray Friars”, two parts, with an appendix concerning the English Nuns of the Order of St. Clare, London, 1726, in 4°. There are also extant some unedited manuscripts.
THADDEUS, The Franciscans in England 1600-1850 (London, 1898), 113, 282; COOPER in Dict. Nat. Biog., ed. LEE, XLIII (London, 1895), 312.
Livarius Oliger.