He was born at Stourbridge, Worcestershire, on 26 May 1761. He was the eldest son of Samuel Parkes, a grocer, by his first wife, Hannah, daughter of William Mence of Stourbridge. He was at a dame's school in Stourbridge with Sarah Kemble, and in 1771 went to a boarding-school at Market Harborough, Leicestershire, under Stephen Addington. Parkes began his career in his father's business. In 1790 he was one of the founders, and for some years president, of a public library at Stourbridge. Around 1793 he moved to Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. A Unitarian, he conducted public worship in his own house at Stoke. In 1803 he settled in Goswell Street, London, as a manufacturing chemist. He joined Sir Thomas Bernard in agitating against salt duties, which were repealed in 1825. In 1820 he was prominent, as a chemical expert, in a notable case between Messrs. Severn, King, & Co. and some insurance offices. He was a numismatist, and made a collection of Greek and Roman coins; he was a collector also of prints and autographs, and brought together a set of the works of Joseph Priestley. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1823. Parkes was a member of 21 learned societies, British and foreign. During a visit to Edinburgh, in June 1825, he went down a painful disorder, which proved fatal. He died at his residence in Mecklenburgh Square, London, on 23 December 1825, and was buried in the graveyard of the New Gravel Pit Chapel, Hackney. His funeral sermon was preached by William Johnson Fox. His portrait, from a drawing by Abraham Wivell, and engraved by Ambrose William Warren, was prefixed to the twelfth and thirteenth editions of the Chemical Catechism.
Works
The first editions of Parkes's manuals of chemistry were issued between 1806 and 1815, and brought him a reputation, and honours from learned societies. The Chemical Catechism was written for the education of his daughter, and lent in manuscript to others. After it was translated into Russian, the Emperor of Russia sent him a valuable ring. In 1817 the Highland Society voted him a silver inkstand for an essay on kelp and barilla. He received a silver cup from the Horticultural Society of Scotland for a paper on the uses of salt in gardening. Parkes published:
A Chemical Catechism, &c., 1806; 12th edit. 1826, edited, with memoir, by J. W. Hodgetts; 13th edit. 1834, revised by Edward William Brayley the younger. There was a pirated edition, with title A Grammar of Chemistry, 1809, bearing the name of David Blair. The sale was stopped by an injunction in chancery. There were many further American editions distinct from the above; and it was translated into French, German, Spanish, and Russian.
Rudiments of Chemistry, 1809, an abridgment of the Catechism; 4th edit. 1825.
Chemical Essays, 1815, 5 vols.; 3rd edit. 1830, edited by Hodgetts.
Thoughts on the Laws relating to Salt, 1817.
Letter to Farmers and Graziers on the Use of Salt in Agriculture, 1819.
Parkes wrote papers On Nitric Acid, Reply to Dr. Henry... respecting... Bleaching by Oxymuriatic Acid, and On the Analysis of some Roman Coins. The Chemical Catechism includes poetical descriptions of chemical processes. Here is his description of plant respiration:
Family
Parkes married, on 23 September 1794, Sarah, eldest daughter of Samuel Twamley of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. His only child, Sarah Mayo, was married, on 25 May 1824, to Joseph Wainwright Hodgetts, who lost his life at an explosion in a chemical works in Manchester, on 14 February 1851.
