were very nearly equal; but several of the English ships were barely seaworthy, and had reduced armaments. And Parker, as brave as his sword, but now nearly seventy, had neither the temper nor the genius to compensate for these defects. More closely than any since the battle of Malaga in 1704, the action that followed was fought out on the lines prescribed by the ‘Fighting Instructions;’ and after both sides had sustained heavy loss, the antagonists parted without arriving at any definite result. Parker believed that his force might have been strengthened considerably had the Earl of Sandwich cared to do it, and he did not scruple to say that he was the victim of treachery and falsehood. The king attempted to soothe him; he went down the river and made a state visit to the flagship; it was intimated to Parker that honours and rewards would follow. He refused to be pacified; he replied that he would not accept anything that came through Lord Sandwich; he insisted on resigning his command, and, when pressed to remain, answered, ‘Sire, you have need of younger men and newer ships.’
By the death of his elder brother, Sir Harry Parker, D.D., he succeeded to the baronetcy on 10 July 1782. Shortly before this, under the new ministry, he had been appointed commander-in-chief in the East Indies. With his flag in the Cato, a new 60-gun ship, he sailed in October 1782, and, after leaving Rio de Janeiro on 12 Dec., was not again heard of. Nine years later it was reported at the admiralty that some buckets and spars, believed to have belonged to the Cato, had been seen on board a country-ship at Jeddah, and were said to have been got from a ship that was wrecked many years before on the Malabar coast, where the officers and men escaped to the shore, but were all killed. The story seems doubtful, and leaves it possible that the older idea, that she was accidentally burnt at, sea, was a true one. Parker married in 1734 Sarah, daughter of Hugh Smithson, and had two sons: Harry, who succeeded to the baronetcy; and Hyde (1739–1807) [q. v.] His portrait, by Northcote, which was engraved by R. Smith in 1787, belongs to the Earl of Morley; another, by Romney, is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich.
[Charnock's Biogr. Nav. vi. 83; Ralfe's Nav. Biogr. i. 161; Naval Chronicle, iii. 40, xx. 337; Official Letters and Documents in the Public Record Office; Beatson's Nav. and Mil. Memoirs; Ekins's Naval Battles of Great Britain; Chevalier's Hist. de la Marine française pendant la Guerre de l'Indépendance américaine; De Jonge's Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewesen.]
PARKER, Sir HYDE (1739–1807) admiral, born in 1739, was second son of Vice-admiral Sir Hyde Parker [q. v.] He entered the navy, with his father, in the Vanguard, and was again for two years with his father in the Cruiser. In the summer of 1755 he joined the Medway with Captain Charles Proby; and, having passed his examination on 7 Nov. 1757, was promoted on 25 Jan. 1758 to be lieutenant of the Brilliant with his father, whom he followed to the Norfolk and the Grafton. In July 1761 he was appointed by Cornish to the Lennox, and on 16 Dec. 1762 was promoted to command the Manila, from which, on 18 July 1763, he was posted to the Baleine. In November 1766 he was appointed to the Hussar, employed during the following years on the North American station under Commodore Hood (afterwards Lord Hood), by whom he was moved, in September 1770, to the Boston. In July 1775 he was appointed to the Phœnix, again on the North American station, and in October 1776 was sent by Lord Howe, in command of a small squadron, to occupy the North River, by which the enemy was receiving supplies. The passage was blocked by heavy frames forming artificial and iron-pointed snags, on a plan invented by Benjamin Franklin (Beatson, iv. 124). These were strengthened by sunken vessels and supported by heavily armed gunboats and by guns on shore. The service was ably performed, Parker passing the obstruction, though not without loss, capturing two of the gunboats and driving the rest on shore under the batteries. For this important service he was knighted on 21 April 1779.
In July 1778 he was with Howe at New York and off Rhode Island, and afterwards convoyed the troops and co-operated with them in the brilliant little expedition to Savannah in January 1779. The Phœnix was then sent home for repairs, and early in 1780 convoyed the trade to Jamaica. On 4 Oct. she was lost on the coast of Cuba in a hurricane. Her men, with few exceptions, were got safely on shore, with provisions, four guns, and ammunition. They entrenched their position and sent a boat to Jamaica for assistance. By the 15th they were all landed in Montego Bay. Returning to England, Parker was appointed to the Latona frigate, in which he joined his father's flag in the North Sea, and took part in the action on the Doggerbank. In October 1781 he was appointed to the Goliath, one of the fleet under Howe, in the following year, at the relief of Gibraltar, and in the rencounter off Cape Spartel. The Goliath was afterwards guardship in the Medway, and later
