Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-12-05
PERTH AMBOY in HISTORY
H PARKER FAMILY
TIE PARKER FAMILY
By Il. e. PIcKERsGILL

lILL IEAlNAAILAN
Richard Wayne Parker, whose
death came suddenly in Paris one
day last week, was the son of the
austere, dignified, cultured Cortlandt
Parker and the grandson of that
James Parker whom older residents
remember fondly and speak of with
no disrespect when they call him
Uncle jimmy" Wayne Parker, as
he was to his friends and intimates,
did not have to go outside of his
! family for an example of faithful
service when he sought, successfully,
the opportunity of giving of his time
| and his talents to the public welfare.
His father was not an oflceholder,
although in many ways he dis
charged most creditable public duties,
| but his grandfather held many
| offices long and with great sa~tisfae-
| ton to his constituents and the re-
Gently deceased congressman's great
grandfather was a member of the
provincial assembly and mayor,
more than once, of the city of Perth
Amboy.
1t takes a volume of nearly 600
pages to tell of the Parkers who
have lived in America. They came
from England and Ireland, where
they appear in army rosters n
civil lists back to the reign of
Edward 1, successor to Alfred the
Great. 1t was in the decade between
1870 and 1850 that the name first
appears in the annals of East Jersey,
when several of the name reached
this side of the Atlantic and settled
in Elizabethtown, Woodbridge and
in Monmouth county.
The first recorded grant of land to
a Parker is dated April 10, 1875,
when Elisha, senior, secured 1872
acres on the highway between
Woodbridge and Piscataway. From
that day until now the name has
appeared on Middlesex county la
lists and until the death of the late
Captain James Parker in this city
there was W a time during the
intervening years when there were
not one or more Parkers resident
within the county, most of the time
in Perth Amboy. The Elisha referred
to was made High Sheriff of Middle
sex in 1894 and in 1907 he repre-
the county in the Provincial
Assembly. -Four years later he was
a member of Governor Hunters
Council. Thus 1t will be seen that as
public officials the Parker family
laid the foundations of its long and
honorable record in the days of the
first generation in this part of the
1t is a long record of long lived
men and women. many of whom
reared large families, until James,
he grandfather of Cortlandt, is
cached. His father was John, who
vas the son of John, who was the
son of Elisha by the second of his
.hree marriages. Cortlandt Parker's
grandmother was Gertrude, the
laughter OF Rev. William Skinner,
Of St. Peters. Her husband James
entered the military service in 1746
and went to the northern frontier
as captain of one of six companies
for the expedition that year.
His papers. including the orders is
sued to him by John Hamilton, the
acting governor of the province,
have been preserved and treasured
by his descendants. Soon after 1856
Captain Parker returned to Perth
Amboy and he resided here almost
all the time until his death.
Governor William Franklin ap-
pointed him councillor to succeed
Chief Justice Morris at the latter's
death. In 1771 he was first mayor
of Perth Amboy and several times
thereafter he was r~eappointed. At
the death of Captain James Parker,
his son MacLeans found among the
papers in the little office used by
generations of the Parkers at the
corner of Smith and Water streets
a commission to his great-great-
grandfather issued by the royal gov
ernor of the province. While a
member of the governors council,
many of the most important ad-
dresses and other documents were
from the ready pen of Mr.. Parker,
for he possessed a wonderful facility
of expression and even in a day of
much letterwriting was regarded as
one of the best pens in the entire
province.
When the break came between
| the colonies and Great Britain, Mr..
Parker preserved a strict neutrality.
He did nothing to aid the cause of
the crown, but he refused ~steadfast-
ly to take the oath to support the
colonial cause. As a result he was
technically in custody a number OF