Philip Packer FRS was a British barrister and architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

. He was a courtier to Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

, and friend to Christopher Wren

Christopher Wren

Sir Christopher Wren FRS is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history.He used to be accorded responsibility for rebuilding 51 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710...

.

He was educated at University College, Oxford where he matriculated in 1635. He then took up law at the Middle Temple and was called to the bar as a barrister in 1647.

He rebuilt Groombridge Place

Groombridge Place

Groombridge Place is a moated Manor house in the village of Groombridge near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. It has become a tourist attraction, noted for its formal gardens, vineyards and a bird of prey sanctuary. -History:...

 with Wren's help in 1662. On 21 May 1669, he met with Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...

. He was an Original Fellow of the Royal Society.

Family

His parents were John Packer, Clerk of the Privy Seal (12 Nov 1572 - 15 Feb 1649), and Philippi Mills.

He married Isabella Berkeley in 1653 in Groombridge, Kent; they had nine children:

• John Philip Packer Esq. of Groombridge (1655 Groombridge - 16 December 1697)
• Catherine Packer (1655 Groombridge, Kent, England - 30 Nov 1722 Finedon
  Finedon
  Finedon is a civil parish and village in the Borough Council of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, with a population at the 2001 census of 4,188 people. Along with Wellingborough, it is twinned with Wittlich, Germany, and Niort, France....
  
  , Northampton, England)
• Isabella Packer
• James Packer (3 March 1657 Groombridge - 12 Jul 1690) at the Battle of the Boyne
  Battle of the Boyne
  The Battle of the Boyne was fought in 1690 between two rival claimants of the English, Scottish and Irish thronesthe Catholic King James and the Protestant King William across the River Boyne near Drogheda on the east coast of Ireland...
  
  , Ireland.
• Elizabeth Packer
• Philip Packer, who emigrated to New Jersey
  New Jersey
  New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
  
  .
• Katherine Packer
• Temperance Packer
• William Packer (born Groombridge - 1690) in Battle of Boyne.

He married Sarah Isgar on 20 December 1666, in Marylebone, and third, Rebecca Jones.

External links

• History of the Royal Society, Thomas Thomson
• "The Accompt of William Balle from 28 November 1660 to 11 September 1663", Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Jun., 1960), pp. 174–183