Career
Parkin was a native of Glastonbury, near Barnstaple, and emigrated to South Australia on the Recovery, arriving in September 1839. He operated a drapery on Hindley Street (later the site of Miller Anderson"s) then Rundle Street, next to the Globe Hotel, (later J Marshall & Company"s emporium) with G. West. Chinner (died June 1880), at one time mayor of Brighton. The shop was later operated by John West. Parkin.
(There are parallels with fellow-parliamentarian John Hodgkiss) He left the trade and took a seat on the board of the Kadina and Wallaroo Railway Company, and was part owner of The Advertiser.
Others were Richard Hanson, Thomas Graves, John Brown, John Davis, Horace Dean, Robert Davenport, Thomas Barlow, William Berry, Samuel Davenport, William Hanson, Henry Giles, Matthew Goode, Carrington Smedley, Clement Sabine, Robert Stuckey, Charles Todd, George White, Alexander Hay. In 1877 he founded the Parkin Trust to benefit those studying for the Congregational ministry.
Parkin College was founded with an endowment of £8,000 and 4,160 acres of land near Darwin, Northern Territory, and left another £16,000 in his Will. They lived at "Plympton House", New Plympton.
After his death she lived at "Stonehenge", Partridge Street, Glenelg.
He left no children.
