Parker, Sir Peter
Parker, Sir Peter
PARKER, SIR PETER. (1721–1811). British admiral. A post-captain from 1747, in October 1775 Parker was appointed commodore with orders to escort Charles Cornwallis's transports to America. Unable to sail until February 1776, and delayed by storms en route, the convoy did not join Henry Clinton until May. Parker and Clinton then cooperated to attack the fort on Sullivan's Island in Charleston Harbor on 28 June 1776. Although the troops were unable to reach the fort, the naval bombardment was frustrated only when three of Parker's ships ran aground. Parker then joined William Howe at New York and supported the landings on Long Island. He escorted Clinton's expedition to Rhode Island and remained there well into 1777. Promoted rear admiral on 20 May 1777, he was later appointed to command the Jamaica station, where in 1778 he became Horatio Nelson's chief patron. Promoted vice admiral on 29 March 1779, Parker supported Dalling's expeditions to Honduras and Nicaragua (1779–1780). Concerned for the safety of Jamaica, he resisted demands to send naval support to save Mobile and Pensacola and was slow to release ships to reinforce the North American squadron under Thomas Graves and Samuel Hood in 1781. Parker was awarded a baronetcy on 13 January 1783 and in due course rose to admiral of the fleet. He died in London on 21 December 1811.
SEE ALSO Jamaica (West Indies); Long Island, New York, Battle of; Sullivan's Island.
revised by John Oliphant