Born in the Bowland Country
Born in the Forest of Bowland country on the Yorkshire–Lancashire border, in the very landscape where the Quaker movement would soon be born.
1628–1689 · Forest of Bowland, Yorkshire–Lancashire border, England
Alexander Parker
The Faithful Companion — Fox's Fellow Traveler and London's Steady Hand
“The first that enters into the place of your meeting, turn in thy mind to the light, and wait upon God singly.” — Alexander Parker
Life & Ministry
Valiant Sixty — First Appearance in Print
Came south as one of the Valiant Sixty carrying the message of the Light within; gathered and published Several Papers (papers by Fox and Nayler) over his own signed preface.
With Fox before Cromwell
Chose to accompany George Fox under soldier escort from the Swannington arrest to London — his letter to Margaret Fell is an eyewitness record of Fox's encounter with the Protector.
A Call out of Egypt
Published his greatest tract, reading Israel's deliverance from Pharaoh as the map of the soul's deliverance from spiritual bondage.
The Epistle on Silent Meetings
Wrote the most celebrated early counsel on the conduct of silent worship — 'turn in thy mind to the light, and wait upon God singly' — and later that year wrote to Friends from a Chester prison.
Newgate and the Plague City
Imprisoned in Newgate under the Conventicle Act; in the plague summer of 1665 he stayed in London and addressed a printed broadside to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the dying city.
Death in London
Died in London, an eminent elder of the city's meetings, having lived to see the Act of Toleration end the great persecution.
Connections & Relationships
George Fox
Traveling CompanionParker traveled with Fox for over three decades, from the Swannington arrest of 1655 to the settled London meetings, and remained one of his most trusted correspondents.
Margaret Fell
CorrespondentParker's steady letters to Swarthmore Hall carried the news of the London meetings, imprisonments, and the movement's growth through its first decade.
Edward Burrough
Co-AuthorIssued A Declaration to All the World of Our Faith with Burrough in 1660 — one of the earliest plain summaries of Quaker belief.
Available Works
A Call out of Egypt: Collected Tracts & Epistles
AvailableSeven tracts (1654–1660) and the epistles, papers, and letters of a lifetime — including the celebrated 1660 counsel on silent meetings and the 1665 plague broadside.