Parkinson, Anthony
PARKINSON, ANTHONY
English Franciscan historian; b. Cuthbert, Lancashire, England, 1667; d. East Hendred, Berkshire, Jan. 30, 1728. Professed as a Franciscan at Douai, he was appointed philosophy professor at the Franciscan college there in 1692. After being assigned to the English mission two years later, he served as superior of the Franciscans at Warwick (1698–1701) and at Birmingham (1701–10), as guardian at Oxford (1710–13), and as provincial (1713–16, 1722–25). In this last post, he participated in the Franciscan general chapter at Rome in 1723. His principal work is the Collectanea Anglo-Minoritica, or a Collection of the Antiquities of the English Franciscans or Friars Minors Commonly Called Gray Friars (London 1726). He spent his remaining years as guardian of Coventry and as chaplain to the Eyston family of Berkshire.
Bibliography: father thaddeus, The Franciscans in England 1600–1850 (London 1898).
[p. s. mc garry]