Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/242

Parker with varying success through England. His entertainment was called ‘The World, Scientific, Theoretic, and Practical,’ and was interspersed with recitations from popular authors. Occasionally he delivered a dissertation on freemasonry, being a prominent member of the brotherhood. In November 1776 he set out on a visit to France, and lived at Paris for upwards of six months on funds supplied by his father. His resources being exhausted, he left Paris in the middle of July 1777 on foot, and, after much privation and illness, managed to reach Boulogne. Here, supported by a number of casual acquaintances, he lectured and recited with success in the character of the ‘universal traveller.’ On reaching England he made another lecturing tour, which proved unsuccessful. Dr. Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other distinguished men tried to befriend him. In 1782 he was connected with the school of eloquence at the Lyceum in the Strand. His wit, humour, and knowledge of the world rendered him at one time an indispensable appendage to convivial gatherings of a kind; but in his later days he was so entirely neglected as to be obliged to sell gingerbread-nuts at fairs and race-meetings for a subsistence. He died in Coventry poorhouse in April 1800 (European Mag. 1800, pt. ii. p. 237). In the obituary notices he is described as having been the ‘projector of the plan of police in Dublin.’

Parker wrote: 1. ‘A View of Society and Manners in High and Low Life, being the Adventures … of Mr. George Parker,’ 2 vols. 12mo, London, 1781. As an autobiography the book is untrustworthy; but it abounds in droll incident and shrewd observation. 2. ‘Humorous Sketches, Satyrical Strokes, and Attic Observations,’ 8vo, London (1782). 3. ‘Life's Painter of Variegated Characters in Public and Private Life,’ 8vo, London, 1789, with a curious portrait of Parker; 2nd edit., undated, but supposed to have been issued at Dublin about 1800. A mutilated edition was published as a shilling chapbook at London, also about 1800. Parker's books were liberally subscribed for, and must have brought him handsome sums.

[Gent. Mag. 1800, pt. ii. p. 901; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iv. 168; Forster's Life of Goldsmith, 1880, ii. 109.] 

PARKER, GEORGE (1767–1847), admiral, born in 1767, son of George Parker, the elder brother of Sir Peter Parker (1721–1811) [q. v.], was borne on the books of the Barfleur, at Portsmouth, under his uncle's command, from 21 Dec. 1773 to 31 Oct. 1775. Similarly, he was borne on the books of the Bristol, on the coast of North America and at Jamaica, from December 1777 to April 1780; but whether he was on board of her at all, or for how long, must remain doubtful. He probably went out to Jamaica in the end of 1779 or beginning of 1780. On 13 April he was entered on board the Lowestoft with his first cousin, Christopher Parker, son of the admiral, and in November followed him to the Diamond. On 13 March 1782 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Nestor, with Captain James Macnamara, and went home in her in the summer of 1783. In 1787 he was appointed to the Wasp on the home station, and in October 1788 was moved into the Phœnix, going out to the East Indies under the command of Captain George Anson Byron. He continued in her with Sir Richard John Strachan [q. v.], and after the action with the Résolue on 19 Nov. 1791 was sent home with the commodore's despatches [see ]. In October 1792 he joined the Crescent frigate, with Captain James Saumarez, afterwards Lord de Saumarez [q. v.], and was first lieutenant of her when she captured the French frigate Réunion on 20 Oct. 1793. On 4 Nov. Parker was promoted to command the Albacore sloop in the North Sea, and on 7 April 1795 he was posted to the Squirrel, also in the North Sea. From December 1796 to February 1802 he commanded the Santa Margarita in the Channel, West Indies, and Mediterranean. In 1804 he was captain of the Argo in the North Sea, and from April 1805 to May 1808 of the Stately, also in the North Sea, where, in company with the Nassau, on 22 March 1808 he captured the Danish 74-gun ship Prince Christian Frederick, which surrendered only after a most obstinate defence and a loss of 143 killed and wounded, the killed and wounded in the English ships amounting to fifty (, iv. 319). A few minutes after the Danish ship struck her colours she ran aground, and, as she could not be got off, was set on fire and blown up. In May 1808 Parker was moved into the Aboukir, which he commanded in the North Sea, in the expedition to the Scheldt in 1810, and afterwards in the Mediterranean, till September 1813, when he was transferred to the Bombay, and in her returned to England in May 1814.

On 4 June 1814 Parker attained the rank of rear-admiral. He never hoisted his flag, but became in due course vice-admiral on 27 May 1825, and admiral 10 Jan. 1837; he was nominated a K.C.B. on 6 June 1837, and died of an attack of influenza on 24 Dec. 1847. Parker married a daughter of Mr. Peter Butt, but left no issue. 