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Josiah Parker

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Josiah Parker
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Virginia's 11th district
In office
March 4, 1793 – March 3, 1801
Preceded byDistrict established
Succeeded byThomas Newton, Jr.
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Virginia's 8th district
In office
March 4, 1789 – March 3, 1793
Preceded byDistrict established
Succeeded byThomas Claiborne
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Isle of Wight County
In office
1782–1783
Alongside John S. Wills
In office
1779
Alongside John S. Wills
Personal details
Born(1751-05-11)May 11, 1751
Isle of Wight County, Virginia Colony, British America
DiedMarch 11, 1810(1810-03-11) (aged 58)
Isle of Wight County, Virginia, U.S.
Political partyFederalist
Other political
affiliations		Pro-Administration
SpouseMary Pierce Bridger
Military service
Branch/serviceContinental Army
Years of service1775–1778
RankColonel
Unit5th Virginia Regiment
Battles/wars

Josiah Parker (May 11, 1751 – March 11, 1810) was an American politician, Revolutionary War officer and Virginia planter who served in the United States House of Representatives from Virginia in the First through Sixth United States Congresses 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.

Early life

Parker was born at the Macclesfield Estate in 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).[1] who received a legislative divorce from her abusive husband after the father's death, though her son Leopold C.P. Cowper would follow his maternal grandfather's path into politics.

Revolutionary War

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 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 Virginia Committee of Safety to act as an executive body between sessions), and at the Fourth Virginia Convention of December 1775 and January 1776.[2] Isaac Fulgham represented the county alongside John Scarsbrook Wills during the Fifth Virginia Convention.

When the American Revolutionary War began in April 1775, Parker enlisted in the Continental Army. He was promptly commissioned a major in the 5th Virginia Regiment on February 13, 1776, promoted to lieutenant colonel on July 28, 1777, and became its colonel on April 1, 1778. His regiment served in Virginia under General Charles Lee until the autumn of 1776, when the 5th Virginia Regiment was transferred to George Washington’s army. The regiment thereafter saw action at the Battle of Trenton, Battle of Princeton, Battle of Brandywine, Battle of Germantown, Battle of Monmouth and the Siege of Charleston.

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.[3][4]

Parker resigned from the army on July 12, 1778 and Isle of Wight voters elected as one of 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.[5] 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.[6] During Cornwallis's Virginia campaign in 1781, the notorious Colonel Tarleton ransacked Parker's home.[7]

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.[8]

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.[9]

Post-war

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.[10]

However, after Virginia ratified the new federal constitution, he accepted election to the First United States Congress. He also won reelection to the Second and Third Congresses. He successfully ran as a Federalist and won election to the 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.[11][12] 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.

The Capture of the Hessians by John Trumbull, Parker is on the far left, dressed in white

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.

The Col. Josiah Parker Family Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.[13]

A World War II Liberty Ship, SS Josiah Parker, was named in his honor.

References

  1. ^ Thomas Parker of Isle of Wight Co Archived March 18, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library pp. 112, 115, 118)
  3. ^ Ward, Harry M. (2011). "Josiah Parker". For Virginia and for Independence: Twenty-Eight Revolutionary War Soldiers from the Old Dominion. pp. 60–61. ISBN 9780786486014.
  4. ^ "NRHP Nomination: Col. Josiah Parker Family Cemetery" (PDF). Virginia Department of Historic Resources. 2004. p. 15.
  5. ^ Leonard p. 130 n.1
  6. ^ Leonard p. 134
  7. ^ William Meade (1891). Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia. J.B. Lippincott & company. p. 229.
  8. ^ David A. Clary (2007). Adopted Son. Bantam Books. p. 324. ISBN 978-0-553-80435-5.
  9. ^ Leonard pp. 146, 150
  10. ^ Rossiter Johnson; John Howard Brown, eds. (1904). The twentieth century biographical dictionary of notable Americans. The Biographical Society.
  11. ^ Bordewich, Fergus (2016). The First Congress. Simon & Schuster.
  12. ^ "Voteview | Plot Vote: 2nd Congress > House > 85". voteview.com. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
  13. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by
District established
 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Virginia's 8th congressional district
1789–1793 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
District established
 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Virginia's 11th congressional district
1793–1801 		Succeeded by
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