34 NOTES, ETC., RELATING TO FAMILIES OF PARKER. 
from the king of the reversion of the site of Darley 
Abbey, &c., messuages in occupation of (zt. alios) 
John Parker, in Hanley and Hinkersall, in the parish 
of Staveley, formerly belonging to the Abbey of 
Beauchief. Messuage, &c., in tenure of (dt. alios) 
Thomas Parker and Henry Parker, in the hamlets 
of Woodseats, Little Lees, and Little Norton. 
(Pegge’s Beauchief Abbey). 
1545. August 14. Will of Isabell Parker, late the wife of 
Robert Parker, of Little Norton, in my lawful 
widowhood—to be buried in the churchyard of St 
James, at Norton—bequeath third part of goods 
at the house to Jone Parker, dau. of John Parker, 
my son—make executor Thomas Parker, my son— 
Witnesses, Thomas Gylbart, clerk, Thomas Came, 
Martin Boswell. Proved at Lichfield, 1545. 
1548. 1st Nov., 1 Edw. VI. Lease from Thomas Babington to 
Thomas Parker, of Little Norton, yeoman,* of all 
that his moyte parte & ppartye of all such toftes 
closes, lands, &c, whyche be sett lyenge or beynge 
* “‘Veoman” implies a condition of life a little better than that which 
would be now indicated by the word. The yeomanry of England, in the reign 
of Elizabeth, formed the class next to those who were the acknowledged 
gentry using coat-armour of right. ° They lived for the most part on lands of 
their own. Hunter’s Founders of New Plymouth, 1854, page 105. 
‘“*The power which the country gentlemen and the country clergymen 
exercised in the rural districts, was in some measure counterbalanced by the 
power of the yeomanry, an eminently manly and true-hearted race. The 
petty proprietors who cultivated their own fields, and enjoyed a modest com- 
etence, without affecting to have scutcheons and crests, or aspiring to sit on 
the bench of Justice, then [17th century] formed a much more important part 
of the nation than at present. If we may trust the best statistical writers of 
that age, not less than a hundred and sixty thousand proprietors, who, with 
their families, must have made up more than a seventh of the whole popula- 
tion, derived their subsistence from little freehold estates. The average 
income of these small landowners was estimated at between sixty and seventy 
pounds a year. It was computed that the number of persons who occupied 
their own land was greater than the number of those who farmed the land of 
others.” Macaulay’s History of England, 1849, Vol. I., page 334, from the 
accession of James I.” 
“Dr. Pegge, in Hist. Beauchief Abbey, p. 192, mentions one Arthur 
Kynder, yeoman, who died 22nd July, 4 Elizabath (1562) possessed of lands 
at Brampton, and observes, that although he was styled a yeoman only, he 
held several other estates at Brampton and Hayfeild Magna, and must have 
been a person of some note. 
