The son of William Parkin of London, a prosperous shoemaker, he was born on 11 January 1690, and educated at Merchant Taylors' School.
[2] He assisted Francis Blomefield with his History of Norfolk, writing the descriptions of Oxburgh and the adjoining parishes.
[2] In the 1740s Parkin engaged in a vituperative dispute with William Stukeley over the antiquity and imagery of the carvings on the walls of the recently discovered cave at Royston.
[2] Joseph Beldam, a later historian of the cave, wrote that "though both parties showed abundant learning and ingenuity, the cause of truth suffered much from their mutual loss of temper.
[3] Parkin died on 27 August 1765, and by his will (dated 17 June 1759) bequeathed money to his old college for the foundation of exhibitions to be held by scholars from the Merchant Taylors' School and from the free school at Bowes, Yorkshire, which had been founded by his uncle, William Hutchinson of Clement's Inn.