Josiah Parker: Difference between revisions

{{short description|American politician}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|birth_place = [[Isle of Wight County, Virginia|Isle of Wight County]], [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia Colony]], [[British America]]

|death_place = [[Isle of Wight County, Virginia|Isle of Wight County]], [[Virginia]], [[United States|U.S.]]

|battles = {{tree list}}

*[[American Revolutionary War]]

**[[Battle of Trenton]]

**[[Battle of Princeton]]

**[[Battle of Brandywine]]

**[[Battle of Germantown]]

{{tree list/end}}

'''Josiah Parker''' (May 11, 1751{{spnd}}March 11, 1810) was an [[politics of the United States|American politician]], Revolutionary War officer and Virginia planter who served in the [[United States House of Representatives]] from [[Virginia]] in the [[First United States Congress|First]] through [[Sixth United States Congress]]es as well as represented Isle of Wight County in three of the five Virginia revolutionary convention and in the Virginia House of Delegates for several terms before his federal service.

Parker was born at the Macclesfield Estate in [[Isle of Wight County, Virginia|Isle of Wight County]] in the [[Colony of Virginia]]. In 1773, he married the widow Mary Pierce Bridger. They had one child, Anne Pierce Parker, (ca 1775, Isle of Wight Co., VA - March 21, 1849).<ref>[http://www.sallysfamilyplace.com/Parker/tompark.htm#Col.%20Josiah%20Parker%201751%20-%201810 Thomas Parker of Isle of Wight Co<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318142331/http://www.sallysfamilyplace.com/Parker/tompark.htm |date=March 18, 2009 }}</ref> who received a legislative divorce from her abusive husband after the father's death, though her son [[Leopold Copeland Parker Cowper]] would follow his maternal grandfather's path into politics.

In 1775, a year after the [[Fairfax Resolves]] and Virginia's first revolutionary convention, Parker won election to his first legislative office, as one of Isle of Wight county's two part-time representatives (alongside John Scarsbrook Wills) to the Second Virginia Convention, which met at St. John's Church in [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]] in March 1775, then both men also represented their county in the Third Virginia Convention that met in July and August (also in Richmond and which established the [[Committee of Safety (American Revolution)|Virginia Committee of Safety]] to act as an executive body between sessions), and at the Fourth Virginia Convention of December 1775 and January 1776.<ref>Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library pp. 112, 115, 118)</ref> Isaac Fulgham represented the county alongside John Scarsbrook Wills during the Fifth Virginia Convention.

At the Battle of Trenton, Parker had the honor to receive Hessian Colonel [[Johann Rall]]'s sword of surrender and he alone holds a sword in the painting, ''[[The Capture of the Hessians at Trenton, December 26, 1776]]'' by [[John Trumbull]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ward|first1=Harry M.|title=For Virginia and for Independence: Twenty-Eight Revolutionary War Soldiers from the Old Dominion|chapter=Josiah Parker|date=2011|pages=60–61|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=scNEB1PtH_8C&pg=PA60|isbn=9780786486014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/IsleofWight/046-5049_Colonel_Josiah_Parker_Family_Cemetery_2004_Final_Nomination.pdf|title=NRHP Nomination: Col. Josiah Parker Family Cemetery| date=2004|publisher=Virginia Department of Historic Resources|page=15}}</ref>

Parker resigned from the army on July 12, 1778 and Isle of Wight voters elected as oneof Isle of Wight county's two (part-time) representatives in the [[Virginia House of Delegates]] (again alongside John Sarsbrook Wills.) However the legislative session was in two parts, and fellow legislators refused to seat him at the first session because he was a colonel of the 5th Virginia Regiment on election days, and thus ineligible to serve as a legislator, so Samuel Hardy was elected to replace him on October 3, 1778 and sat in the December session.<ref>Leonard p. 130 n.1</ref> Voters elected Parker to the Assembly of 1779, and he again served alongside John Scarsbrook Wills, although again replaced by Samuel Hardy for the Assembly of 1780-1781.<ref>Leonard p. 134</ref> During [[Cornwallis]]'s Virginia campaign in 1781, the notorious Colonel [[Tarleton]] ransacked Parker's home.<ref>{{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/oldchurchesmini00meadgoog | title=Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia | author=William Meade| page=[https://archive.org/details/oldchurchesmini00meadgoog/page/n253 229]| publisher=J.B. Lippincott & company| year=1891 }}</ref>

In August 1781, Lafayette sent Parker to [[Portsmouth, Virginia]] on a reconnaissance. He found the British had embarked for Yorktown. Parker recovered 25 cannons the British had thrown into the sea to prevent their capture.<ref>{{cite book| author=David A. Clary| title=Adopted Son| year=2007| page=[https://archive.org/details/adoptedsonwashin00clar/page/324 324]| publisher=Bantam Books| isbn=978-0-553-80435-5| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/adoptedsonwashin00clar/page/324}}</ref>

Isle of Wight voters again elected Parker and Wills as their delegates to the General Assembly sessions of 1782, and re-elected both men to the part-time delegate position in 1783 assembly session.<ref>Leonard pp. 146, 150</ref>

In 1786, Parker accepted an officer's commission in the [[US Navy]] officer at [[Portsmouth, Virginia]]. He ran to become a delegate to the [[1788 Virginia Convention]], since he opposed surrendering Virginia's hard won independence by ratifying the United States Constitution.<ref>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ve0UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT210 | title=The twentieth century biographical dictionary of notable Americans |editor=Rossiter Johnson |editor2=John Howard Brown| publisher=The Biographical Society| year=1904 }}</ref>

However, after Virginia ratified the new federal constitution, he accepted election to the [[First United States Congress]]. He also won reelection to the [[Second United States Congress|Second]] and [[Third United States Congress|Third Congresses]]. He successfully ran as a [[Federalist Party|Federalist]] and won election to the [[Fourth United States Congress|Fourth]] through [[Sixth United States Congress]]. Declaring it was time to "wipe off the stigma" of slavery that stained America, Parker became the first national legislator in American history to formally introduce an antislavery motion in Congress, and was one of seven representatives to vote against the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1793]].<ref>{{Cite book|title = The First Congress|last = Bordewich|first = Fergus|publisher = Simon & Schuster|year = 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Voteview {{!}} Plot Vote: 2nd Congress > House > 85 |url=https://voteview.com/rollcall/RH0020085 |access-date=2023-08-21 |website=voteview.com}}</ref> Parker then returned home and farmed on his plantation back in Isle of Wight county.

==Death and legacy==

Parker died in 1810, and was buried in the family cemetery on his plantation, "Macclesfield", in Isle of Wight County, Virginia.

His grandson, [[Leopold Copeland Parker Cowper]], born to his daughter the year after Col Parker died, served several terms representing Isle of Wight county in the Virginia House of Delegates, as well became as lieutenant governor in the [[Restored Government of Virginia]] during the [[American Civil War]].

*{{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediavir02unkngoog| quote=Macclesfield virginia.| title=Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography edited |author=Lyon Gardiner Tyler| page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediavir02unkngoog/page/n167 123]| publisher=Lewis historical publishing company| year=1915 }}

*{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e1VlAAAAMAAJ&q=Macclesfield+virginia&pg=RA1-PA409| title=Colonial families of the Southern states of America | author=Stella Pickett Hardy| page=409| publisher=Wright| year= 1911}}

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{{VirginiaRepresentatives11}}

[[Category:Federalist Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia]]