having fitted out two frigates, captured the Adventure, and hanged Henn and the thirteen men who formed his crew; but Parker, in the Prudence, got off safely, and arrived in Plymouth in the beginning of July.
Three years later, in November 1600, he sailed again in the Prudence, having on board, besides several gentlemen volunteers, a crew of 130 men, and with him the Pearl of 60 tons and 60 men. Sacking and burning the town of St. Vincent, in the Cape Verd Islands, on the way, they proceeded to the West Indies, and after capturing and ransoming a Portuguese ship, with a cargo of nearly 400 negroes, went to the island of Cabezas, near the mainland. Leaving the ships, they went in boats with 150 men to the Bastimentos, and thence, by night, on 7 Feb. 1601, into the harbour of Porto Bello; there they landed, and after a stubborn fight, in which they lost many men, they made themselves masters of the town. Unfortunately the treasury was nearly empty, 120,000 ducats having been sent to Cartagena only a week before. Ten thousand ducats was all that remained; but ‘the spoil of the town, in money, plate, and merchandise, was not inconsiderable.’ With this and two frigates, which they found in the harbour and carried off, they retired to their ships, ‘releasing the prisoners, among whom were the governor and several persons of quality, without any ransom, satisfied with the honour of having taken, with a handful of men, one of the finest towns the king of Spain had in the West Indies.’ They arrived at Plymouth in May. The date of this expedition is given by Purchas, whom all later writers have followed, as 1601–2; but it is quite certain that in the latter part of 1601 and through 1602 Parker was at Plymouth, and the correct date, it may be safely assumed, was a year earlier.
In August and September 1601 he was at Plymouth, busy sending out vessels to watch the Spanish fleet of 120 ships said to be collected at Lisbon, part of the time being at sea himself, cruising between Scilly and Ushant. In December 1601 he was mayor of Plymouth, examining prisoners and suspected persons, and 163l. 17s. 9d. was awarded him for the expense of a bark and caravel sent to watch for the Spanish fleet.
After the peace with Spain he probably settled down as a merchant at Plymouth and took no further part in public life, except as one of the adventurers in the Virginia Company. He may probably be identified with the William Parker who was ‘a suitor’ in November 1617 ‘for the chief command’ of a voyage to the East Indies. The rival competitors were Sir Thomas Dale [q. v.] and Sir Richard Hawkins [q. v.] Dale was appointed chief commander, and Parker his vice-admiral. He was then, according to Dale, unfit for his work, being old and corpulent. The fleet sailed in the spring of 1618, and on 26 June arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, whence Parker wrote requesting that 100l. might be paid to his wife, which was ordered to be done. He died on the voyage to Bantam on 24 Sept. 1618. He left a son John, in the service of the company, apparently an agent.
[Hakluyt's Principal Navigations, iii. 602; Purchas his Pilgrimes, iv. 1243; Lediard's Naval Hist. pp. 351, 380; Calendars of State Papers, Dom. and East Indies; Brown's Genesis of the United States, p. 961.]
PARKER, WILLIAM, fourth Baron Monteagle and eleventh Baron Morley of the first creation (1575–1622), born in 1575, great-grandson of Henry Parker, eighth baron Morley [q. v.], was eldest son of Edward Parker, tenth baron Morley (1555–1618). A younger brother, Charles, volunteered for service in Sir Walter Raleigh's unfortunate expedition to Guiana in 1617 (Edwards, Raleigh, i. 567). The father, after spending some time abroad as a recusant, seems to have conformed. He resigned the office of lord marshal in Ireland, which had long been hereditary in his family, and received in exchange the sole right to print and publish a book called ‘God and the King,’ a manual for the instruction of children in the oath of allegiance (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. p. 122). He was a commissioner for the trials of Queen Mary Stuart in 1586 and of Philip, earl of Arundel, in 1589. Many of his letters are at Hatfield. Parker's mother was Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of William Stanley, third lord Monteagle (d. 1581). The latter was grandson of Edward Stanley, who had been created Lord Monteagle in 1514, and was second surviving son of Thomas Stanley, first earl of Derby. Parker's maternal grandmother, Anne, lady Monteagle, was a warm supporter of the English jesuits (Life of Philip, Earl of Arundel), and both his parents, despite their outward conformity, had strong catholic sympathies.
Parker, who was known by courtesy as Lord Monteagle in right of his mother, married, before he was eighteen years old, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Tresham, by Muriel, daughter of Sir Robert Throgmorton of Coughton, Warwickshire. His eldest sister, Mary, married, about the same time, Thomas Habington [q. v.] of Hindlip, Worcestershire. His relations with the chief Roman catholic families in the country thus
