RPPC BROWSHOLME HALL HOME OF PARKER FAMILY TUDOR BOWBEARERS FOREST OF BOWLAND.  Browsholme was ‘H’ shaped, having a central hall with the parlour wing to the west and kitchens to the east; by 1591, when an inventory was taken, twenty-four rooms were listed including the ‘Schole Chamber’, ‘Paynted Chamber’ and ‘Maydens Chamber’. After 1603 the front was refaced in rusticated pink sandstone and the central portico added displaying the orders of architecture; Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. A hundred years later the small Queen Anne wing was added to the east. This provided a second staircase, a new kitchen below and a bedroom and closet above.The final transformation was in the early nineteenth century when Thomas Lister Parker removed the front of the west wing rebuilding on the same ground plan a grand regency drawing room and erected a single storey portrait gallery, now the main dining room.The HallThe Hall, dating back to the original house built after 1507, was once sixty-eight feet long and is arguably the finest surviving antiquarian interior in England. The many and varied antiquities on view include a buff coat as worn by Captain Thomas Whittingham, killed at the Battle of Newbury fighting for the king; the dog stirrup reputedly used as a gauge to control dogs in the Forest of Bowland and safeguard the deer, a skull believed to be a Martyr from the Pilgrimage of Grace, a peg tankard said to have been in use since about the reign of Edward III, medieval stained glass and a fragment of a Zeppelin shot down in 1916 and given to the family as a souvenir.Family TreeIn 1381, John of Gaunt granted to Edmund de Alkincotes the employ of ‘le Parker’ of Radholme Laund within the deerpark of the Forest of Bowland. The origin of the family tree can be traced back to his grandfather Peter de Alkincotes. Some genealogists go further back to suggest a connection to the descendants of Edward I; but the creation of ‘le Parker’ in the late 14th C is sound foundation for this Parker family tree.In 1490 or thereabouts, Robert bought the leasehold of the vaccaries of Browsholme and Waddington from the crown and probably built the first dwellings for the family at Over and Nether Browsholme. From this period the family tree has been well documented, certainly for the eldest children of each generation. For the younger members and girls who have married, much less is known. Many of these moved to other parts of the country and to the America’s and beyond.In 1688 Robert Parker, the second son of Thomas Parker of Browsholme, bought Alkincoats Hall near Colne and founded a distinct branch of the family tree with direct lineage to Robert & Amanda Parker today.View the Parker Family Tree (PDF)Read about The Parkers of Browsholme (PDF)Read about the American Link (PDF)Another important family tree is the antecedents of Col Robert Parker. He died a bachelor in 1975, leaving Browsholme to his 4th cousin and godson Robert the current owner.American connectionWilliam Parker (1560-1631), Archdeacon of Cornwall married, Joan Panchard (m.1589) and they had two sons the elder being James Parker. James Parker (1590-1672) the eldest son of William, married Katherine Buller, of Shillington, Cornwall, on 12th December 1616; Richard was the ninth child and the fourteenth son of this marriage that produced twenty-one children! Richard Parker (1630 Ç1677, the ÄemigrantÅ) emigrated to the Colony of Virginia, arriving in Nasemond County in 1647 it is said due to a price being put on his head by Oliver Cromwell for his support of Charles I and the royalist army