The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/King, Rear-Admiral Phillip Parker
King, Rear-Admiral Phillip Parker, F.R.S., F.L.S., son of Philip Gidley King, third Governor of New South Wales, by his marriage with Anna Josepha, daughter of Mr. Combes, of Bedford, was born at Norfolk Island, where his father was Lieut.-Governor, on Dec. 13th, 1791, being, it is asserted, the first child of European parents born there—though this can scarcely have been the case if the commonly received date of William Charles Wentworth's birth is correct. He entered the navy in 1807, and from 1817 to 1822 was engaged in surveying the northern coasts of Australia in the ships Mermaid and Bathurst. During this period he made no less than four separate expeditions, all of which he commanded. Subsequently (1825 to 1830) he was engaged with Admiral Fitzroy in surveying the South American coasts in the ships Adventure and Beagle. He obtained post rank in Feb. 1830, and, retiring from the navy, settled permanently in New South Wales, where he had been appointed in his absence in 1829 a member of the Legislative Council, and where he acted as manager of the Australian Agricultural Company. He was gazetted to the rank of rear-admiral in 1855, and died in February of the following year. In 1817 he married Harriet, second daughter of Christopher Lethbridge, of Madford, Launceston, England.