moved as Midshipman to the Narcissus 32, Capt. Ross Donnelly; and while in that frigate, of which he was created an acting and a confirmed Lieutenant 6 Oct. 1803 and 24 Sept. 1804, he saw much active service. On 11 July in the latter year, in particular, he assisted with the boats of his own ship and of the Maidstone and Seahorse, 10 in number, under the orders of Lieut. John Thompson, and was highly spoken of for his conduct at the capture and destruction of 12 settees, lying at La Vandour, in the Bay of Hyères, after a conflict, in which the British, encountered by a tremendous fire of grapeshot and musketry, as well from the vessels themselves as from a battery and the houses of the town, sustained a loss of 4 men killed and 23 wounded.[1] In the following year Mr. Parker, who in July, 1803, had contributed to the capture of L’Alcyon, of 16 guns and 96 men, accompanied the expedition to the Cape of Good Hope; on her passage whither the Narcissus, besides making prize of Le President privateer, of 12 guns and 70 men, retook the English merchantship Horatio Nelson, mounting 22 guns, and drove on shore the Napoléon privateer, of 32 guns and 250 men. Subsequently to the reduction of the Cape, Mr. Parker, on the surrender there of the 46-gun frigate Volontaire, was placed on board that ship under the orders of Capt. Hon. Josceline Percy. In June, 1806, having been advanced to the rank of Commander on 22 of the preceding Jan., he went on half-pay. His next appointment was, in March, 1807, to the Prometheus sloop; from which vessel, for his services during the expedition to Copenhagen, he was promoted, 13 Oct. following, to Post-rank. He afterwards obtained command – 11 March, 1811, of the Monmouth 64, bearing the flag in the Downs of Rear-Admiral Thos. Foley – 15 April, 1812, of the Tenedos 38, attached to the force on the coast of North America, whence he returned in Aug. 1815 – 15 March, 1818, of the Iphigenia 46 [errata 1], which ship was paid off 12 June, 1821 – 1 May, 1830, of the St. Vincent 120, bearing the flag of Sir Thos. Foley at Portsmouth – 16 Feb. 1831, of the Asia 84, on the Lisbon station – 19 Dec. following, again of the Victory, employed, as before, at Portsmouth, where he remained until Feb. 1833 – and, 29 Aug. 1835, for upwards of four years and a half, of the Rodney 92, on the Mediterranean station. While in the Tenedos Capt. Parker was engaged, in company with the Shannon 38, Capt. Philip Bowes Vere Broke, in blockading, during the month of April, 1813, the port of Boston, in which lay the American frigates President and Congress;[2] he afterwards, in April, 1814, united with the Junon 38, Capt. Clotworthy Upton, in chasing the Constitution frigate into Marblehead Harbour, whither he was only prevented from following her by a signal of recall from the Junon;[3] and, on 15 Jan. 1815, he witnessed the surrender of the above-named President to the British frigate Endymion, Capt. Henry Hope.[4] In the Iphigenia, after having conveyed the Duke of Richmond to Quebec, he proceeded to the West Indies, where the fever in a few weeks carried off 84 of his officers and men. On 5 Sept. 1831 Capt. Parker was nominated an Extra Naval Aide-de-Camp to King William IV. He attained flag-rank 23 Nov. 1841; and, from 4 Aug. 1842 until the close of 1847, he held the appointment of Admiral Superintendent at Portsmouth. In 1845 he commanded an experimental squadron. He was nominated a C.B. 18 April, 1839.
Rear-Admiral Parker married, 16 July, 1821, Caroline, daughter of the late Sir Fred. Morton Eden, Bart., and sister of Capt. Chas. Eden, R.N. By that lady he has issue. Agents – Messrs. Chard.
PARKER. (Commander, 1847.)
Hyde Parker obtained his first commission 5 April, 1844; and, from 15 May, 1846, until advanced to his present rank 4 Aug, 1847, was employed in the Pacific on board the Constance 50, Capt. Sir Baldwin Wake Walker. He is now on half-pay.
PARKER. (Captain, 1838. f-p., 32; h-p., 10.)
John Parker entered the Navy, 1 May, 1805, as A.B., on board the Utrecht 64, Capt. Thos. Seccombe, bearing the flag in the Downs of Rear-Admiral John Holloway; and in the course of the same year was present, we are informed, as Midshipman, in the boats of the Vesuvius bomb, in an attack upon the Boulogne flotilla. While serving next with Capt. Seccombe in the Glatton 50, he assisted in the boats of that ship at the cutting out, 1 March, 1807, of a Turkish corvette of 10 guns, lying at anchor in the port of Sigri, in the Grecian archipelago, where the resistance encountered by the British killed their commanding officer, Lieut. Edw. Watson, and 4 men, and wounded 9, including Mr. Parker, whom, in the course of the same year, we find employed in a gun-boat on Lake Mareotis, in co-operation with the army during the expedition to Egypt. On 30 Jan. 1808 he chanced, with Capt. Seccombe, to be on board the Delight 16, Capt. Philip Cosby Handfield, when that vessel, in an endeavour to re-capture four Sicilian gun-vessels, took the ground near Reggio, and was obliged to surrender, after losing, from an exposure of 15 hours to a galling fire from the enemy’s batteries and troops, two-thirds of her crew, together with her Commander and Capt. Seccombe. In the following May he became attached to the Standard 64, Capt. Thos. Harvey; previously to accompanying whom, in March, 1809, into the Majestic 74, he aided in cutting out an armed schooner near Otranto, and in spiking the guns of a battery at Cape St. Mary’s. While serving as Master’s Mate in the Majestic Mr. Parker was wounded in her boats in escorting a convoy through the Great Belt; and on his removal in 1810 to the Solebay 32, Capt. Hon. Granville Leveson Proby, he beat off, in a prize, a Danish privateer. On his arrival in the East Indies in the Malacca 36, Capt. Wm. Butterfield, he was nominated, 9 June, 1812, Acting-Lieutenant of the Phoenix 36, Capt. Jas. Bowen; under whom, it appears, he accompanied an expedition against the pirates of Sambas, in the island of Borneo. After a servitude of 20 months, the chief part of the time as a Supernumerary, in the Illustrious 74, Capt. Joseph Prior, Barracouta sloop, Capt. Chas. Hawkey, Minden 74, flag-ship of Sir Sam. Hood (by whom he was employed in surveying the neighbourhood of Trincomalee), Stirling Castle, and Cornwallis, of similar force, Capts. Sir Home Popham and Stephen Thos. Digby, and Monmouth 64, Capt. Wm. Wilkinson, he was made Lieutenant, 29 Nov. 1814, into the Spencer 74, Capts. Rich. Raggett and Wm. Robt. Broughton, stationed at first on the coast of North America, and then at Plymouth, where, for nine months, he had command of a tender. We may here mention that on leaving the Stirling Castle he received from Sir Home Popham a very flattering letter for the zeal and exertions he had exhibited while under his orders. The Spencer being paid off in Aug. 1818 he was next in succession appointed – 3 Dec. 1822, to the Northumberland 78, Capt. Thos. Jas. Maling, lying at Sheerness – 27 Feb. 1823, as First, to the Éclair 18, Capts. Wm. Jas. Hope Johnstone and Thos. Bourchier, fitting for South America – 5 June, 1824, to the Spartiate 76, Capt. Gordon Thos. Falcon, on the latter station – and, 13 Sept. 1825, as Senior, to the Volage 28, Capts. Hon. Rich. Saunders Dundas, Robt. Tait, and Michael Seymour. Attaining the rank of Commander 26 Feb. 1829, Capt. Parker was nominated, 12 March following, Second-Captain of the Southampton 52, flag-ship
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1804, p. 1239.
- ↑ On 21 of the following month, being in company with the Curlew brig, he took the Enterprize American schooner privateer of 4 guns (pierced for 18) and 91 men.
- ↑ In Sept. 1814 he commanded the squadron employed in co-operation with the troops under Lieut.-Colonel Pilkington at the reduction of .Machias, the last post possessed by the enemy between the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Bay. – Vide Gaz. 1814, pp. 2026, 2121.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1815, p. 281.
