on at Plymouth. On the threat of war with France in 1787, Parker was appointed to the Orion, which was paid off when the dispute was settled. Similarly during the Spanish armament of 1790 he had command of the Brunswick, which he resigned in the autumn.
On 1 Feb. 1793 he was promoted to be rear-admiral of the white, and was nominated by Lord Hood to be captain of the fleet with him in the Mediterranean. In this capacity he was present at the occupation of Toulon and the reduction of Corsica. On 4 July 1794 he was promoted to the rank of vice-admiral, and, on the return of Hood to England, hoisted his flag in the St. George as third in command under Admiral Hotham, continuing with him during 1795, and taking part in actions of 13 March and 13 July. On his return to England, in the early part of 1796, he was immediately appointed commander-in-chief at Jamaica, where, during the next four years, the cruising ships, as stationed by him, were exceptionally fortunate, and brought in a great many prizes—merchantmen, privateers, and ships of war—‘by which both himself and his country were materially benefited.’
He returned home in the end of 1800, and in the following January was appointed commander-in-chief of a fleet destined for the Baltic on account of the threatening attitude of the Northern Confederation, or—as it is more commonly called—the Armed Neutrality. As the negotiations with Denmark proved ineffective, and Parker would not consent to adopt the proposal of Lord Nelson, his second in command, and, leaving a sufficient force to overawe Copenhagen, proceed at once to strike a decisive blow against Russia, it was determined to bring the Danes to terms by force. The depth of water before Copenhagen was insufficient for the larger ships, and Parker accepted the offer of Nelson to undertake the service with a detachment of the smaller ships of the line [see Nelson, Horatio, Viscount]. This was done with complete success on 2 April, Parker's division being at anchor two or three miles to the north. Even after the victory Parker could still not be persuaded to move up the Baltic; he was nervously anxious to secure the communications in his rear, a theoretical necessity which the special circumstances had annulled. There has never been a suspicion of timidity as the cause of his inaction, but he has reasonably been accused of wanting the ability to see that there may be a time when formal rules should be thrown to the winds, and this was Nelson's opinion. Whether it was not also the opinion of Lord St. Vincent, then at the head of the admiralty, may be doubted; it probably was; for a few weeks after the battle he was recalled, Nelson succeeding to the command. Parker had no further service, and died on 16 March 1807. He was twice married: first, to Anne, daughter of John Palmer Boteler, and by her and three sons; secondly, to a daughter of Admiral Sir Richard Onslow [q. v.] Bromley mentions two portraits of Parker: one by Sir Joshua Reynolds, which was engraved by C. Townley, and the other by Romney, engraved in 1780 by J. Walker.
His eldest son, Hyde Parker (1784?–1854), was promoted to be a lieutenant in the navy in 1804, a commander in 1806, and a captain in 1807. During the war with the United States he commanded the Tenedos on the coast of North America, and on 15 Jan. 1815 was present at the capture of the U.S. frigate President [see Hope, Sir Henry]; he was nominated a C.B. in 1839, became a rear-admiral in 1841, and vice-admiral in 1852. He was first sea lord of the admiralty in 1853, with Sir James Graham, and died in 1854. His son Hyde, a captain in the navy, commanded the Firebrand in the Black Sea, and was killed on 8 July 1854 when storming a Russian fort at the mouth of the Danube. The vice-admiral's second brother, John Boteler, died a major-general and C.B. in 1851; and the youngest, Harry, a lieutenant in the guards, fell at Talavera.
[Charnock's Biogr. Nav. vi. 523; Ralfe's Nav. Biogr. i. 377; Naval Chron. v. 281; Passing Certificate and other official documents in the Public Record Office; Beatson's Nav. and Mil. Memoirs; Nelson Despatches, freq. (see index); Mahan's Influence of Sea Power on the French Revolution and Empire, ii. 42–56; Foster's Baronetage; Gent. Mag. 1854, pt. ii. 76, 303.]
PARKER, JAMES (1750–1805), engraver, born in 1750, was a pupil of the first James Basire (1730–1802) [see Basire, Isaac], having as a fellow-apprentice William Blake [q. v.] In 1784 he and Blake in partnership opened a print-shop in Broad Street, Carnaby Market, but the business failed three years later. Parker's early plates were executed in the stipple style; but he afterwards became an excellent line-engraver, and was much employed upon book illustrations. His stipple work included two subjects from Ossian's ‘Fingal,’ after Barralet; ‘The Pulse,’ 1785; ‘Sterne conducting Maria into Monlines,’ 1786; ‘The Ticket,’ 1787; and ‘The Novel,’ 1787, all after J. Northcote; and some portraits for Harding's ‘Shakespeare Illustrated.’ Parker's most important
