Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/295

 Sir John Borlase Warren [q. v.], which on 14 March 1806 fell in with and captured the French Marengo and Belle Poule. The Belle Poule was actually brought to action by the Amazon, and struck to her; and Warren publicly expressed his high appreciation of Parker's conduct. During the following years the Amazon was employed for the most part on the coast of Spain and Portugal, almost constantly on the move; the work was very harassing, and gave no opportunities for distinction. In May 1810 the frigate was sent home for a thorough refit, and on her arrival in Plymouth Sound Parker obtained three months' leave of absence. On 10 June he married Frances Anne, youngest daughter of Sir Theophilus Biddulph. At the close of the three months he rejoined the ship, and sailed again for the coast of Spain. During 1811 the Amazon was attached to the fleet off Brest and in the Channel. By the beginning of 1812 she was quite worn out, and was paid off on 16 Jan.

Parker was now glad to have a spell on shore. The great opportunities, he believed, were at an end, and the war was not likely to last much longer. He had acquired a competent fortune; he bought a place—Shenstone Lodge—near Lichfield, and there, for the next fifteen years, led the life of a country gentleman—hunting, shooting, and entertaining his friends—taking little part in politics; and, though a deputy-lieutenant of the county, seldom interfering in the business. On 4 June 1815 he was nominated a C.B. In 1827 he was offered the command at the Cape of Good Hope, with a commodore's broad pennant. He replied that his uncle had always maintained that no one ought to serve as a flag officer who had not commanded a ship of the line; and that, in obedience to this precept, he would much prefer an appointment as captain. He was accordingly appointed to the Warspite, in which he went out to the Mediterranean, and acted during 1828 as senior officer on the coast of Greece. In September Sir Edward Codrington [q. v.] hoisted his flag on board the Warspite for a passage to England, and in December Parker was appointed to command the royal yacht Prince Regent.

On 22 July 1830 he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and in April 1831 was appointed second in command of the Channel squadron, under Sir Edward Codrington, with his flag in the Prince Regent, of 120 guns. In September he was detached on an independent command to the Tagus, where, with his flag in the Asia, he remained till June 1834, protecting British interests during the bitter civil war then raging, with a tact and success which were acknowledged by his being nominated a K.C.B. on 16 July. In July he returned to England, and was immediately appointed one of the lords of the admiralty under Lord Auckland. On the change of ministry in December he went out of office, but in April 1835 was reappointed, Lord Auckland being again the first lord. He remained at the admiralty for six years, and left it on 12 May 1841, only on his appointment as commander-in-chief in China, where the troubled state of affairs demanded the presence of an officer in whom the government had full confidence.

Parker assumed command of the squadron at Hong Kong on 10 Aug.; and, after capturing Amoy, Ningpo, Woosung, and Shanghai, brought matters to a successful issue by seizing Chin-kiang-foo and closing the entrance of the Grand Canal on 21 July 1842. The Chinese were immediately brought to terms, and peace was concluded at Nankin on 27 Aug. Parker's share in this happy result was rewarded by a G.C.B. on 18 May 1843, by a good-service pension of 300l. a year on 26 April 1844, and by a baronetcy on his return to England on 18 Dec. 1844. He had attained the rank of vice-admiral on 23 Nov. 1841, and in February 1845 was appointed commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, the 120-gun ship Hibernia, which was laid down in 1792, and is still, in 1895, afloat as a receiving ship in Malta harbour, being commissioned as his flagship. In May 1846 it was thought advisable, both as a concentration of force and on account of Parker's long experience of Portugal and Portuguese politics, to appoint him also to the command of the Channel fleet. This brought him from Smyrna and Constantinople to Cork, where he arrived on 13 July, to receive a very pressing invitation from Lord Auckland to join the board of admiralty as first sea lord. Parker felt obliged to decline; his health, he thought, would not stand the work, and his eyes threatened to give out if pressed by candle-light. In the course of the next few months the squadron visited Lisbon, Lagos, Cadiz, Tetuan, and Gibraltar; and while many of the ships remaining in the Mediterranean wintered at Athens, the Hibernia, with several more, was at anchor in the Tagus, and continued there during the first half of 1847. Parker then returned to the Mediterranean, where the turmoil of revolutions kept him busily occupied during 1848 and the following years. The difficulties he had to contend with were, however, mostly diplomatic; and though his correspondence is an interesting commentary on