William Parkyns

Sir William Parkyns or Perkins (1649?–1696) was an English lawyer and Jacobite conspirator, executed for high treason.

Parkyns acquired a good practice, and, inheriting wealth from his father, became prominent in the London as an adherent of the court party, an "abhorrer" at the time of the Exclusion Bill, and, after the Glorious Revolution, as an inveterate Jacobite.

Parkyns was too gouty to take a very active share, but he provided horses, saddles, and weapons for accomplices to the number of forty, and was promised a high post in the Jacobite army.

Nothing was found in his house in Covent Garden, but at his country seat in Warwickshire were revealed arms and accouterments sufficient to equip a troop of cavalry.

He defended himself, but the testimony of Captain George Porter, who had turned king's evidence, was explicit; he was found guilty and condemned to death.

Efforts were made to induce Parkyns to confess what he knew, and a deputation of nine Members of Parliament visited him in Newgate.

Three Non-Juror priests, Jeremy Collier, Shadrach Cook and William Snatt accompanied Parkyns and Friend to Tower Hill and immediately prior to the execution declared the two absolved of their sins.