The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-04 00:00:00

ADMIRAL" PARKER.

In consequence of the reports from Baw-street Police-office,
inserted in the Morning Papers of Saturday last, Mr. Minshull
received an anonymous ccmmunication, enclosing a statement
of some interesting facts relative to " Admiral" Parker, who
acted as the leader in the mutiny at the Nore, and was exe-
cuted June, 1797, as well as to the sufferings of Mrs. Parker
on that melancholy cecasion. The writer hoped the worthy
Magistrate would endeavour by some means to give publicity
to the statement, in order to bring the distressed circumstances
of the widow under the eye of some benevolent individuals
who might be induced to assist her in her old age. The fol-
lowing is the substance of the statement

" In the months of February and March, 1797, a spirit of
rebellion appeared in the Channel fleets of Portsmouth and
Plymouth, and the mutiny soon became general in the fleet at
Spithead, to that delegates on board the Queen Charlotte, in
the month of April, unanimously agreed that until the griev-
ances v,ere redressed, and an act of indemnity passed, they
would not lift an anchor. Happily this mutiny was sup-
pressel, and the King's proclamation of pardon issued April
22, 1797. Such a joyful conclusion gave universal satis-
factian ; but the high bounties of twenty or thirty guineas per
man for the navy, and the many desperate persons who had
thus entered, together with the dregs of prisons, who had been
forced into our ships of war, and the spirit of the times, in
one month produced another mutiny onboard the fleet at the
Nore anchorage, near Sheerness, which spread to the ships of
war in Yarmouth Roads, and to the North Sea fleet
of Admiral Lord Duncan, then cruiziag off the Texel, in
Holland, to blockade the Dutch fleet. This mutiny at the
Nore broke out on the 22d of May, 1797, and continued
until the month of July. The principal person who cons
ducted this mutiny was the husband of Ann Parker, who
signed himself at this time as Richard Parker, President
of the Committee of Delegates on board his Majesty's ship
'Sandwich,' or, as the sailors csvUed him, and he was more
generally styled, ' Admiral Parker.' This person was a
native of Exeter. His father was a respectable tradesman,
and kept a baker's shop in St. Sidwell's. Richard was brought
up to the sea, and received a valuable education, learning na-
vigation and everything necessary to qualify him for com-
mand. He had been in the Royal Navy for some years as
midshipman and master's mate, and at one time acting as
lieutenant. Having formed an acquaintance with Ann Ma-
chardy, who belonged to a respectable family in Aberdeen-
shire, they were married at St. Sidwell's, Exeter, and the
Clergyman's certificate, extracted from the church books, de-
scribes the ' Admiral' as Richard Parker, gentleman, mar-
ried by license.' Having embarked in a speculation in Scot-
land, which failed, and living with his wife and two children
in Edinburgh, in a style beyond his means, embarrassments
followed, and he became so reduced that he entered a naval
tender at Leith, and took the bounty, as thousands more did
at this time who were in pecuniary difficulties, and this rash
step gave the greatest alarm to his wife, who immediately
hastened to a wealthy brother in Aberdeenshire, to get two
able seamen as substitutes, and save her husband from the
horrors of war. To add to their misfortunes a child died,
and their difficulties became daily more embarrassing.
" The regulating Captain had promised to wait fourteen
days; but although Mrs. Parker returned within that time, she
was only son' en ,ugh to catch a glimpse of the ship leaving
Leith Roada for the Nose. Lamenting over his errors, and
distracted about his amiable and belomd wife, Parker fancied,
just after sailing from Leith, that he saw his dead infant float-
ing on the water. He sprung overboard, and although the
vessel instantly hove to, twenty minutes elapsed befo:e they
succeeded in getting him on board.

" On his irrivar he was placed on board the Sandwich,
guard and receiving-ship, moored off the Nore Light-vessel,
at the entrance of the Thames and the Medway. This was
early in May, 1797, and his disconsolate wife returned to her
friends in Aberdeenshire, after finding that all her endea-
vours to procure his freedom were unsuccessful. Admiral
Buckner was at this time the Port Admiral, and the mutiny
was now concocting by secret meetings in his Majesty's
ship Sandwich, which Parker had joined. He was soon
discovered to be a fine, intelligent, bold, and energetic cha-
racter, and secret proposals were made to him to take the
lead, and become President, or Admiral. He considered what
the seamen demanded only reasonable, and consented to become
their President, and did everything in his power to restrain
their excesses, but strenuously exerted himself to secure their
rights, which were afterwards allowed them by a Committee of
Nasal Inquiry. Parker was tried on board his Majesty's ship
iVeptune, and executed at the fore-yard arm of his Majesty's
ship Sandwich. His wife heard a rumour that one Richard
Parker was at the head of the mutiny, and although unwilling
to believe that it was her husband, she hastened to Edinburgh,
where she was seized by officers, and taken before the Lord Pro-
vost and searched for letters from her husband ; but she had none,
having heard nothing from him, and she was discharged. Having
plenty of money from her brother (since dead) she took the mail
for London, and arrived hf..re on Wednesday night. She bad
her luggage conveyed to the Hoop and Horseshoe, on Tower-
hill, and upon inquiry she there learned that Parker had been
tried, but knew not the result. On Thursday she gave a
guinea to a person to write a petition to the King in favour of
her husband, and hastened to St. James's Palace with it.
Here she read a proclamation on the walls, offering a reward of
1,000/. for Parker, dead or alive. The excitement about him
in Loudon was very great. On saying she had a petition for
the King she was told that any one could be presented except
for l'arker. She gained admission, however, and a Lord in
Waiting took it from her, and in a short time an answer was
brought to her that an express had already gone off with the
decision of the Council, without saying what that decision
was. She immediately took a coach for Rochester, and on
her arrival went off to the King's ship, where she learned that
Parker was to be executed the next day. That night she sat
up in trembling anxiety, and about four next morning went to
the stairs to hire a boat. The waterman, seeing her alone, said,
No, not for one, for the brave Admiral Parker is to die to.
day, and I shall get any money I ask for a party.' She then
entered a Sheerness market-boat, and put off to the Sandwich ;
but no boat was suffered to come alongside. She called for
Parker, but a sentinel threatened to fire if she attempted
to come near. She saw her husband on the main-deck
with the Chaplain, and, en observing her, he cried out,
" There's my dear wife from Scotland," but she could not
make any communication to him, and was not permitted to
go on board. She heard him entreat to have the 55th
Psalm read, and she immediately fainted and was taken on
shore. Having recovered, she took a boat again, and, with-
out telling who she was, she was taken to the ship, but the
execution was over; and, on calling out, " Pass the word for
Richard Parker," she was answered, " His body is just gone
ashore to be interred in the New Burial-ground, and you
may come on board now." She refused, and was rowed
ashore. The corpse was just buried, but nut deep, and she
learned that the surgeons would probably disinter him that
night. She climbed over the wall with the most extraordinary
excitement, and tore up some loose earth and the lid of the
shell containing the body, until she was able to grasp her
husband's cold hand. She returned over the wall, hired two
women and five men, and a caravan, and got the body disin-
terred that night, and at three o'clock on Saturday morning,
she started in the van with one woman and her husband's
corpse. On arriving at Rochester she hired a caravan to
London, with two good horses, for six guineas. The roads
were lined with persons inquiring about Admiral Parker,'
but the man who drove could not satisfy their curiosity, for
he was not aware that the body of Parker was in his own
lan. They reached London at eleven o'clock at r'ellat, but
an express from Sheerness communicating the intelligence of
the removal of the body had preceded them, and the greatest
excitement prevailed to see the corpse. She took the body to
her lodgings and sat beside it, but the anxiety of the people be-
came so great, that at two o'clock in the morning the house was
filled with people, and such was the alarm in London 'that
Admiral Parker's body would create a civil war,' that the
Lord Mayor was ordered down to her lodgings. His Lord-
ship inquired what she meant to do with the body, and she re-
plied that she intended to convey it in a hearse to the family
vault in Scotland or Exeter. This he positively refused to
allow her to do, stating that it would occasion a civil war, but
permitted her to inter the body in London. A gentleman
called the next day and offered a vault in Whitechapel Church,
which she thankfully accepted. Oa Monday the crowd was
so great that to preserve the public peace the body was re-
moved by order to Aidgate workhouse, Nightingale-lane, St.
Katherine's. Mrs. Parker was now summoned to Lambeth-
street police-office to declare who helped her to disinter the
body ; but neither promises nor threats could induce her to
speak of any but two women. The body of Parker was ul-
timately removed through an immense crowd to Whitechapel
Church, and Mrs. Parker was admitted through the Rector's
house. Frayers having been solemnly read over the corpse,
she signed a paper for the Press that she was satisfied. Parker,
in a will, made on board the Sandwich, signed by the Chap-
lain and a Lieutenant Hardy, had made hr sole executrix to
his estate et Exeter, which she enjoyed until eight years since,
when it was, according to her account, fraudulently taken
from her.
On Friday last she was conveyed by Shackell, the officer, to
the hospital; but as she required two dresses before being ad-
mitted there, and as the poor creature had only what she ap-
peared in at the office, she could not enter
.that day, and was
conducted to the workhouse, where she was immediately taken
in until she could be provided with the necessary &Hetes re-
quired on entering the hospital.

On Saturday "Baron Rehausen, the Swedish
Ambassador, accompanied by Messrs. Cant and Hughes, the
American Ministers at the Court of Stockholm, were present
at Worship-street police-offiee the greater part of the day, and
took great interest in the proceedings.
A slim flaxen-haired youth was apprehended by a
police agent the day before yest •rday in the act of insinuating
Lis taper fingers into the pocket of a redingote a he proprie-
taire, the proprietor of which was gazing intently on the litho-
graphic wonders displayed in Aubert's shop window, at the
corner of the Passage Vero-Dodat. On being taken before
the Commissary of Police fir the quarter, the thief alleged
that the hallucination which had induced him to mistake his
pocket for his own had b^en occasioned by his
neighbour's
ardent desire to procure a sum of money sufficient to pay for
a set of the Robert Macaire caricatures, for the purchase of
which he had already saved 25f. The • statement appeared so
extraordinary to the Commissary, that he had the curiosity to
send to the printseller's, where it was ascertained that the thief
had really been bargaining for the caricatures in question.
Notwithstanding his artistical propensities, the Commissary
committed him for trial, to give him an opportunity of eluci.
dating in court his somewhat
.novel doctrine on the subject of
private property. Galignant's Messenger.
A girl, not more than fourteen years of age, who
had the care of the children of a physician on the Boulevard
13caumarchais, threw herself the other evening from a
window of the fourth story into the street, and was killed on
the spot. The cause by which one so young could have been
driven to an act so desperate has not been ascertained.