Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/217

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PARKER


PARKER


Evangelical Alliance in 1887. Yale conferred upon him the degree of A.M. in 1858. ' He is the author of: Journal of an Expedition from Singapore to Japan (1838); A Statement respect- ing Hospitals in China (1841); Eulogy on Henry Wilson (1880). He died in Washington, D.C., Jan. 10, 1888.

PARKER, Richard Elliott, senator, was born at Rock Spring, Westmoreland county, Va., Dec. 27, 1783; son of Capt. William Harwar and Mary (Sturman) Parker, and grandson of Judge Richard and Elizabeth (Beale) Parker. He studied law at La wfield.Va., under his grandfather, Judge Richard Parker, was admitted to the bar and set- tled in practice in his native county, which he re- presented in the Vii'ginia legislature for several years. He was colonel of the militia in West- moreland county at the outbreak of the war of 1812, and served as colonel of the 35th Virginia regiment, with which he defended the Northern Neck from British attacks, 1813-14. He was wounded in the action at White House, Sept. 16, 1814, returning after the war to the practice of law, and was elected a judge of the general court, July 26, 1817. He was elected to the U.S. senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Benjamin Watkins Leigh, serving from Dec. 15, 1836, to Feb. 13, 1837, when he resigned to accept a seat on the bench of the Court of Appeals of Virginia, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Dabney Carr, Jan. 8, 1837. He declined the position of attorney-general in the cabinet of President Van Buren, in 1840, as successor to Felix Grundy. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. William Foushee, of Richmond, Va. He died at the " Retreat," Snickersville. Va., Sept. 9, 1840.

PARKER, Richard Wayne, representative, was born in Newark, N.J., Aug. 6, 1848; son of Cortlandt (q.v.)., and Elizabeth Wolcott (Stites) Parker, and grandson of Richard Wayne Stites, of Morristown, N.J. He was graduated at the College of New Jersey, A. B., 1867, A.M., 1870, and at Columbia Law school LL.B., 1869. He was adinitted to the bar in 1870, and practiced with his father in Newark. He was married, Jan. 2, 1884, to Eleanor, daughter of Gen. Wil- liam W. (q.v.) and Eleanor (Kinzie) Gordon, of Savannah, Georgia. He was a representative in the New Jersey legislature 1885-86; was the Republican candidate for congress from the sixth New Jersey district in 1892, and was elected a representative in the 54th, 55th, 56th, 57th and 58th congresses, 1895-1905.

PARKER, Samuel, second bishop of Massachu- setts and 10th in succession in the American episcopate, was born in Portsmouth, N.H., Aug. 17, 1744; son of Judge William and Elizabeth (Grafton) Parker; grandson of William and Zerviah (Stanley) Parker, of England, who fled


OLO TRINITY CHURCH —BOSTON


to America and settled in Portsmouth, N.H., in 1703. Zerviah Stanley, a daughter of the Earl of Derby, married without her father's consent and abandoned her claims to nobility. Samuel Parker was graduated at Harvard, A.B. 1764; A.M., 1767. He was married in November, 1766, to Annie, daughter of John Cutler of Bos- ton, Mass. He pre- pared for holy or- ders while teaching school, and was elected assistant of Trinity church in Boston, Mass., in October 1773. He was ordered deacon in the chapel of Fulham palace,

London, Eng., Feb. 24, 1774, and ordained priest three days later by Dr. Terrich, Lord Bishop of London. He assumed the duties of assistant in November, 1774, and during the Revolution was the only Anglican clergyman to remain at his post and support the cause of the colonists. He was elected rector of Trinity church, June 27, 1779, and after the war went about trying to re- organize and establish the scattered churches and to reinstate the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He was elected bishop of the Eastern diocese to succeed Bishop Bass, deceased, in 1803, and was consecrated at Trinity church. New York city, Sept. 14, 1804, by Bishop White, assisted by Bishops Claggett, Jarvis, and Moore. He never discharged the duties of the office, being pros- trated with gout on his return from New York from which he did not recover. He received the degree D.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1789. He published an Annual Election Ser- mon before the Legislature of Masschusetts (1793); a Sermon for the Benefit of the Boston Female Asylum (1803), and several occasional discourses. He died in Boston, Mass., Dec. 6, 1804.

PARKER, Samuel, missionary ex]>lorer, was born in Ashfield, Mass., April 23, 1779; son of Elisha and Thankful (Marchant) Parker, and a descendant of Robert Parker, the immigrant, who settled in Barnstable, Mass. Elisha Parker, a native of Yarmouth, Mass., was a member of the coast guard at the beginning of the Revolution, and afterward a soldier in the engagements from Bennington to Saratoga, 1775-77. Samuel Parker was graduated at Williams college, A.B., 1806, A.M., 1809; was principal of the academy at Brattleboro, Vt., and was graduated at Andover Theological seminary in 1810, going as a mission- ary to Steuben and Allegany counties. N.Y. He was ordained, Dec. 24, 1812, and was pastor of