This great and noble surname is English. Borne by the Earls of Morley and Macclesfield; the Barons of Boringdon and Monteagle, and having more than sixty Coats of Arms, it is ultimately of French occupational origins. It described an official in charge of the extensive hunting parks of a king or wealthy landowner. The derivation is from the words "parchier" or "parquier" meaning "park- keeper". The surname was first recorded in Englnd in the latter half of the 11th Century following the 1066 Norman Invasion, and as such was one of the very earliest surnames on record. Only five percent of the entries in the great Domesday Book of 1086 show people having surnames, and this is one of them. Amongst these very early recordings are examples such as Geoffrey Parchier, in the book of 'Seals' for the county of Northumberland, dated 1145 a. d. and Adam le Parker in the Hundred Rolls of the county of Norfolk for the year 1273. The surname was one of the very first into the new American colonies. William Parker, aged 20, who arrived in the ship Charles of London, in the year 1616, is shown in the records for January 23rd 1624 as being in the "muster" of Susan Bush, of 'Elzabeth Cittie'. Quite what his situation was is far from clear, as Susan Bush herself arrived in 1617, and was only aged 20! The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Anschetil Parcher, which was dated 1086, in the Domesday Book of the county of Somerset, during the reign of King William 1, known as "The Conqueror", 1066 - 1087.

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