Thomas Parkyns was the eldest son of
Sir Thomas Parkyns, 3rd Baronet (1728–1806) of
Bunny Hall, Nottinghamshire and was educated at
Queens' College, Cambridge. He was an officer of the
British Army from 1783 to 1790, serving in the
15th Regiment of Dragoons and as an
equerry to
Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn, the third son of the
Frederick, Prince of Wales. A close friend of the Prince of Wales, he was made colonel of the
Prince of Wales Fencibles in 1794. After Prince Henry's death in 1790, Parkyns took over the lease of
Rookley Manor, Hampshire until his own death from oedema in 1800, whereby he predeceased his father. He was elected MP for
Stockbridge in 1784, sitting until 1790 and then as MP for
Leicester in 1790, sitting until 1800. In 1787 he was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society as "a Gentleman well versed in various branches of Science" In 1795 he was made an Irish peer as
Baron Rancliffe. Parkyns was a
Freemason. He was a
Provincial Grand Master of
Derbyshire and of
Nottinghamshire, the Grand Master of the
Masonic Knights Templar in England, and the Grand Commander of the Society of Ancient Masons of the Diluvian Order of
Royal Ark Mariners until 1799. ==Family==