Robert Townley Parker Esq., the Guild Mayor of Preston, 1862. Engraving from a photograph by Samuel Oglesby, of Fishergate, Preston. Mr. Robert Townley Parker, of Cuerden Hall, Lancashire, the chief magistrate of Preston, has long held a high position in the county, and the many families of which he is the representative have been on the roll of the Lancashire gentry for several generations...Mr. Robert Townley Parker served the office of High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1817. He was returned as one of the members for Preston in 1837 and 1852. He is, with one exception, the oldest magistrate in the county, having qualified on the 14th of January, 1819. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.