Samuel Parker (bishop of Massachusetts)

For other people named Samuel Parker, see Samuel Parker (disambiguation).

The Right Reverend Samuel Parker
Bishop of Massachusetts.
Church	Episcopal Church
Personal details
Born	(1744-08-17)August 17, 1744 Portsmouth, New Hampshire, U.S.
Died	December 6, 1804(1804-12-06) (aged 60) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality	American
Parents	William Parker and Elizabeth Parker
Spouse	Anne Parker
Children	15
Occupation	Episcopal Bishop
Alma mater	Harvard

Samuel Parker (August 17, 1744 – December 6, 1804) was an American Episcopal Bishop. He was the second bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.

Education and Ordination

Parker was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the son of William Parker, a lawyer and judge during the American Revolution. He graduated from Harvard University in 1764, and taught for several years.

After being offered a job as assistant rector of Trinity Church, Boston, he was ordained deacon and priest in London in February 1774. He began as assistant rector at Trinity in November 1774, becoming rector in 1779. After the Revolution, he helped build churches with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

In 1803, Parker was unanimously elected second bishop of Massachusetts. He was consecrated September 16, 1804, in Trinity Church, New York, but developed gout and never served in the post. He died in Boston on December 6, 1804.

Consecrators

• The Most Reverend William White, 1st bishop of Pennsylvania and 1st and 4th Presiding Bishop
• The Right Reverend Thomas John Claggett, 1st bishop of Maryland
• The Right Reverend Abraham Jarvis, 2nd bishop of Connecticut

Parker was the 10th bishop consecrated in the Episcopal Church.

Publications

• Annual Election Sermon before the Legislature of Massachusetts (1793)
• Sermon for the Benefit of the Boston Female Asylum (1803)

Family life

Parker's son Samuel Hale Parker was a publisher and bookseller. His youngest son, Richard Green Parker, was a noted educator.

Further reading

• Sprague, William Buell.: Annals of the American Pulpit: Or, Commemorative Notices of Distinguished American Clergymen of Various Denominations, from the Early Settlement of the Country to the Close of the Year Eighteen Hundred and Fifty-five Pages 296-298, (1859).
• The Episcopal Church Annual. Morehouse Publishing: New York, NY (2005).
• Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Parker, Samuel, P. E. bishop" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.