He was already chaplain to Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and to his wife Katherine, and his friends included Miles Coverdale and John Aylmer.

On the accession of Queen Mary he left the country and settled at Zurich, where he was received by Rudolf Gwalther, Heinrich Bullinger and other Calvinists.

Defrauded by a servant, Parkhurst moved from the bishop's palace, which he had repaired, to a small house at Ludham; and introduced a bill into parliament to prevent such abuses, which was accepted by the government.

Elegies by Rodolph Gualter and his son were published at Zürich in 1576, in a tract dedicated to Edwin Sandys, Bishop of London.

Parkhurst published in the year before his death a collection of Latin epigrams[3] which he had composed in his youth, and which had been prepared for publication at Zurich in 1558; the majority are eulogies or epitaphs on friends.

He contributed to the collection of Epigrammata in mortem duorum fratrum Suffolcensium Caroli et Henrici Brandon, London, 1552, and to John Sheepreeve's Summa ... Novi Testamenti disticis ducentis sexaginta comprehensa, Strasburg, 1556.