page_title: Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield
section_title: Lord Chief Justice
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield / Lord Chief Justice
context_page_description: Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, PC, FRS was an English Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1705 to 1710. He was Lord Chief Justice from 1710 to 1718 and acted briefly as one of the regents before the arrival of King George I in Britain. His career ended when he was convicted of corruption on a massive scale and he spent the later years of his life in detention.
context_section_description: From 1710 to 1718 Parker was involved in the prosecution of Dr Sacheverell. He made a vehement attack on Sacheverell and the high church clergy. He defended Whig propagandists and harried Tory publicists, including Defoe and Swift, on the slightest suspicion of favouring the Pretender. He spoke against the peace in the Privy Council in April 1713. In June 1714 he was given evidence of the recruiting activity of Jacobite agents which resulted in a price being placed on the Pretender's head.  On 1 August 1714, Queen Anne died, and her successor, King George I, was in Hanover, so Baron Parker was designated as one of the regents of Great Britain, Ireland and the realms beyond the seas until the new monarch arrived in Britain.   His support for the Hanoverian succession was appreciated by King George I who reappointed him lord chief justice in 1714, and raised him to the peerage as Baron Parker of Macclesfield in 1716. In 1718, because the King could not speak English, Parker gave the King's Speech in the House of Lords.
caption: The Earl of Macclesfield, by Sir Godfrey Kneller.
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