The son of James Parkinson, he was born at Witney, Oxfordshire, on 3 March 1653, and matriculated at Oxford on 2 April 1669 as a servitor of Brasenose College.
[1] Parkinson was a successful college tutor, by his own account, but his Whig views made him unpopular with colleagues: Thomas Hearne wrote that he was "a rank stinking whigg, who us'd to defend ye Murther of King Charles 1st, and recommend Milton and such other Republican Rascalls to his Pupills".
After Convocation, by decree of 21 July 1683, had condemned the tenets professed by the exclusion party, the fellows of Lincoln drew up a set of twelve articles against Parkinson, accusing him of advocating anti-monarchical and anti-Anglican principles, both in his private conversation, and from the pulpit of St.
Parkinson appeared in court on 3 September 1683, and pleading not guilty to an indictment charging him with holding republican views, was released on bail.
Parkinson appeared at several assizes and then before Chief-justice George Jeffreys in the Court of King's Bench, the proceedings against him continuing till April 1686.
His Whiggish pamphlets probably recommended him to Archbishop John Tillotson, who found Parkinson the headmastership of King Edward's School, Birmingham, in 1694.
Costly proceedings in chancery had no result: Parkinson as headmaster maintained his position until his death; but no exhibitioners were sent to the universities, and the number of his pupils diminished.