A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Parker, John
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 of Sir Edw. W. C. B. Owen, in the East Indies; where he was placed in command, 12 May, 1831, of the Cruizer 18.[1] That vessel being paid off about Jan. 1834, he was appointed, 11 April, in the same year, to the Hastings 74, hearing the flag at Lisbon of Sir Wm. Hall Gage, under whom he served for a period of three years and nine months. He attained his present rank 28 June, 1838, and was afterwards, 18 March, 1839, and 18 Aug. 1841, placed in command of the Winchester 50, flag-ship of Sir Thos. Harvey, and Vestal 26, both on the North America and West India station. Since the autumn of 1842, at which period the latter vessel was put out of commission, Capt. Parker has been on half-pay. Agents – Goode and Lawrence.
- ↑ Prior to joining the Cruizer Capt. Pnrker commanded for a time the Satellite 18.