He was the eldest son of Samuel Parkes (died 1 April 1811, aged 76), a grocer, by his first wife, Hannah, daughter of William Mence of Stourbridge.

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 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.

[1] 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.

Here is his description of plant respiration: Parkes married, on 23 September 1794, Sarah (born 25 February 1766; died 14 December 1813), eldest daughter of Samuel Twamley of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.

His only child, Sarah Mayo (born 28 May 1797; died 30 July 1887), 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.