# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Parker, Hyde (a)

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​PARKER, C.B. (Rear-Admiral of the White, 1841. f-p., 31; h-p., 20.)
Hyde Parker is son of the late Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, Kt., by his first wife, Anne, daughter of John Palmer Boteler, Esq., of Henley; half-brother of Commander Chas. Parker, R.N.; and grandson of the late Vice-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, Bart. One of his brothers, John, a Colonel in the Army, married a daughter of the late Rear-Admiral Sir Home Popham, K.C.B.; and another, Harry, a Lieutenant in the Guards, was killed at Talavera. The Rear-Admiral is uncle of Capt. Harry Eyres, R.N., C.B.
This officer entered the Royal Naval Academy 5 Feb. 1796; and embarked, in Sept. 1799, as a Volimteer, on board the Cambrian 40, Capts. Hon. Arthur Kaye Legge and Geo. Henry Towry, employed at first in the Channel and then in cruizing among the Western Islands. In Nov. 1801 he ​removed as Midshipman to the Narcissus 32, Capt. Ross Donnelly; and while in that frigate, of which he was created an acting and a confirmed Lieutenant 6 Oct. 1803 and 24 Sept. 1804, he saw much active service. On 11 July in the latter year, in particular, he assisted with the boats of his own ship and of the Maidstone and Seahorse, 10 in number, under the orders of Lieut. John Thompson, and was highly spoken of for his conduct at the capture and destruction of 12 settees, lying at La Vandour, in the Bay of Hyères, after a conflict, in which the British, encountered by a tremendous fire of grapeshot and musketry, as well from the vessels themselves as from a battery and the houses of the town, sustained a loss of 4 men killed and 23 wounded. In the following year Mr. Parker, who in July, 1803, had contributed to the capture of L’Alcyon, of 16 guns and 96 men, accompanied the expedition to the Cape of Good Hope; on her passage whither the Narcissus, besides making prize of Le President privateer, of 12 guns and 70 men, retook the English merchantship Horatio Nelson, mounting 22 guns, and drove on shore the Napoléon privateer, of 32 guns and 250 men. Subsequently to the reduction of the Cape, Mr. Parker, on the surrender there of the 46-gun frigate Volontaire, was placed on board that ship under the orders of Capt. Hon. Josceline Percy. In June, 1806, having been advanced to the rank of Commander on 22 of the preceding Jan., he went on half-pay. His next appointment was, in March, 1807, to the Prometheus sloop; from which vessel, for his services during the expedition to Copenhagen, he was promoted, 13 Oct. following, to Post-rank. He afterwards obtained command – 11 March, 1811, of the Monmouth 64, bearing the flag in the Downs of Rear-Admiral Thos. Foley – 15 April, 1812, of the Tenedos 38, attached to the force on the coast of North America, whence he returned in Aug. 1815 – 15 March, 1818, of the Iphigenia 42, which ship was paid off 12 June, 1821 – 1 May, 1830, of the St. Vincent 120, bearing the flag of Sir Thos. Foley at Portsmouth – 16 Feb. 1831, of the Asia 84, on the Lisbon station – 19 Dec. following, again of the Victory, employed, as before, at Portsmouth, where he remained until Feb. 1833 – and, 29 Aug. 1835, for upwards of four years and a half, of the Rodney 92, on the Mediterranean station. While in the Tenedos Capt. Parker was engaged, in company with the Shannon 38, Capt. Philip Bowes Vere Broke, in blockading, during the month of April, 1813, the port of Boston, in which lay the American frigates President and Congress; he afterwards, in April, 1814, united with the Junon 38, Capt. Clotworthy Upton, in chasing the Constitution frigate into Marblehead Harbour, whither he was only prevented from following her by a signal of recall from the Junon; and, on 15 Jan. 1815, he witnessed the surrender of the above-named President to the British frigate Endymion, Capt. Henry Hope. In the Iphigenia, after having conveyed the Duke of Richmond to Quebec, he proceeded to the West Indies, where the fever in a few weeks carried off 84 of his officers and men. On 5 Sept. 1831 Capt. Parker was nominated an Extra Naval Aide-de-Camp to King William IV. He attained flag-rank 23 Nov. 1841; and, from 4 Aug. 1842 until the close of 1847, he held the appointment of Admiral Superintendent at Portsmouth. In 1845 he commanded an experimental squadron. He was nominated a C.B. 18 April, 1839.
Rear-Admiral Parker married, 16 July, 1821, Caroline, daughter of the late Sir Fred. Morton Eden, Bart., and sister of Capt. Chas. Eden, R.N. By that lady he has issue. Agents – Messrs. Chard.
* ↑ Admiral Sir Hyde Parker was born in 1739. After serving with his father (the late Vice-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, Bart.) as Midshipman in the Lively, Squirrel, and Brilliant, he was promoted, 25 Jan. 1758, to the rank of Lieutenant. Accompanying his parent, subsequently, into the Norfolk, Grafton, and Panther, he was present, in the Grafton, at the siege of Pondicherry, and in the expedition of 1762 against the Manilla Islands; and in the Panther, at the capture of the Santissima Trinidad galleon. He attained Post-rank 18 July, 1763, and he afterwards, between 1770 and 1790, commanded, in succession, the Boston 32, Phoenix 44, Latona 38, and Goliath, Orion, and Brunswick 74’s. For his services in the Phoenix during the war with America, where he took part in the attack upon New York, accompanied the expedition against Philadelphia, and conducted the naval part of the operations on the Coast of Georgia, he was rewarded with the honour of Knighthood 21 April, 1779, In the Goliath Sir Hyde sailed with Lord Howe, in 1782, for the relief of Gibraltar, and in the action with the combined forces which followed the accomplishment of that object, had the honour of leading the van division of the fleet. In 1790 he was nominated a Colonel of Marines. On attaining, in 1793, the rank of Rear-Admiral, he became Captain of the Mediterranean fleet under Lord Hood, with whom he served in that capacity at the occupation of Toulon, and at the reduction of Corsica. In 1795, having in the preceding year acquired the rank of Vice-Admiral and hoisted his flag on board the St. George 98, he was afforded an opportunity of sharing in Admiral Hotham’s two partial actions with the French. He was afterwards, for three years, Commander-in-Chief on the Jamaica station; and on his return to England he was appointed to the chief command of the Channel fleet. He had risen to the rank of full Admiral in Feb. 1799. He closed his naval career by commanding in chief the famous expedition which, in the battle of 2 April, ISOl, broke the Northern Confederacy. For that service he received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament. He died an Admiral of the Red 16 March, 1807.
* ↑ Vice-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, Bart., served as Midshipman under Commodore Anson in 1739-40, was made a Lieutenant about 1744, and a Post-Captain in the Lively frigate about 1747. Between 1757 and the period of his promotion to Flag rank, which took place 23 Jan. 1778, he commanded the Squirrel, Brilliant, Norfolk, Grafton, Panther, and Invincible. In the Brilliant he served under Rear-Admiral Rodney at the destruction of Havre-de-Grace in 1759; in the Nobfolk he assisted at the siege of Pondicherry, and at the capture of the Manilla Islands in 1762; and in the Panther, in Nov. of the latter year, he made prize, after a close action of two hours, of the Santissima Trinidad Spanish galleon, pierced for 60 guns, carrying between 700 and 800 men, and valued at upwards of 500,000l. In 1778 Rear-Admiral Parker succeeded to the chief command in the West Indies, where his exertions in protecting the commerce of England, and in distressing that of the enemy, were highly successful. On 17 April, 1780, he bore a distinguished part in Sir George Rodney’s partial engagement with the French fleet under Admiral de Guichen, off Ste, Lucie; and in the following Sept. he was advanced to the rank of Vice-Admiral. Being soon afterwards invested with the chief command in the North Sea, he there, on 5 Aug. 1781, with 7 sail of the line, 4 frigates, and a cutter, fell in, near the Doggerbank with a Dutch squadron, under Admiral Zoutman, consisting of 6 line of battle ships, two of 44 guns each, and 4 frigates; the whole of which, after a brilliant and most obstinate conflict of three hours and forty minutes, were compelled to retire into the Texel, with the loss of one ship of the line. On 13 Oct. 1782, Sir Hyde sailed for the East Indies with his flag in the Cato 50, but he was never heard of after leaving Rio de Janeiro on 12 Dec.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1804, p. 1239.
* ↑ On 21 of the following month, being in company with the Curlew brig, he took the Enterprize American schooner privateer of 4 guns (pierced for 18) and 91 men.
* ↑ In Sept. 1814 he commanded the squadron employed in co-operation with the troops under Lieut.-Colonel Pilkington at the reduction of .Machias, the last post possessed by the enemy between the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Bay. – Vide Gaz. 1814, pp. 2026, 2121.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1815, p. 281.
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