Individual Page

Person Info

• Name: Robert PARKER
• Sex: M
• Birth: 1754 ^b
• Death: 1 May 1799 ^d


Parents:

• Father:
  
• William PARKER Death: Abt 18 Apr 1757
Mother:

• Elizabeth TODD Birth: 1730 in Co Armagh, Ireland Death: 21 May 1790

Family:
Marriage:

• Mary SMITH on 10 May 1787 .^m1
  
• Mary SMITH Birth: 1764 Death: 1 Dec 1848 in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania

Children:

1. Mary Smith PARKER Birth: 5 Apr 1788 Death: 26 Aug 1848
2. Elizabeth Todd PARKER Birth: 16 Dec 1789 Death: 27 Jan 1845

Bibliography

Sources for birth and parent Information

date:

[Ref: Helm TODD p175],

parents:

[Ref: Helm TODD p175, Helm TODD p75]

Sources for death Information

date:

[Ref: Helm TODD p175]

Sources with Information about marriage to Mary SMITH

date:

[Ref: Helm TODD p176],

child:

[Ref: Helm TODD p177, Helm TODD p277, Helm TODD p357]

Research Notes:
entered the service of the United States from Philadelphia, Apr 28 1777, as Second Lieutenant in the Second Continental Artillery, Col. John Lamb, in which his brother-in-law, Andrew Porter, was a captain. He was promoted First Lieutenant Jan 1 1781, and transferred to the Fourth Continental Artillery - the Pennsylvania Regiment - Col. Thomas Proctor; he was made Captain Lieutenant to succeed Thomas Story, Oct 4 1782. He served until June 1783.
Lieutenant Parker was with his battery at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, in 1777; in the battle of Monmouth in 1778; with Gen. James Clinton's brigate in Gen. Sullivan's expedition against the Indians in 1779; and in the siege of Yorktown in 1781. He was with the Southern army 1782-83. While the army was at Valley Forge Lieutenant Parker was one of a number of officers sent to Carlisle, Pa, by the Board of War to learn the art of fixing ammunition. "As you are sent to obtain a perfect knowledge of the business," General Gates, President of the Board, wrote Apr 28 1778, "not only on your own account, but to promulgate it through the States, the Board make no doubt of your diligently and manfully applying yourselves to the task you have undertaken. We have too good an opinion of you all to suppose that it will be necessary to impress this sentiment upon you; because should there be any who are negligent, or averse to being taught, the Board are satisfied, as men regarding the interest of your country, you would return to your other duty, and put some other person in a situation so desirable as that you are now in. The time you have been at Carlisle has been one argument with the Board, added to their anxiety to have the laboratory art more generally known, and we shall be happy to hear on your return to camp, and we have no doubt we shall, that the knowledge you have gained at Carlisle is equal to the expectation formed when the measure of sending you there was adopted." His stay at Carlisle was probably his first visit to the Cumberland Valley, in which Captain Parker made his home after the Revolution. He kept a Journal of the Sullivan Expedition that has been preserved and was printed in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History for October, 1902, and January, 1903.
When General Lafayette visited America, in 1824, James Madison Porter, the youngest son of Gen. Andrew Porter, was presented to him soon after his arrival in New York. "Porter," said the French hero, "I remember that name; are you any relation of Captain Porter, whom I met at the Brandywine." "A son," young Porter answered. "I bless you for father's sake," Lafayette said. "He was a brave man. He had with him there a young man, a relative I think, whose name I have forgotten. They fought very nearly together." "Was it Parker?" Madison Porter asked. "That was the name." "He was my mother's brother." "Ah, indeed," the Marquis said; "they were good soldiers, and very kind to me when I was wounded." Captain Parker was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati.
Captain Parker was appointed collector of excise for Franklin county by the Supreme Executive Council, Nov 17 1787. He built for himself in the village of Mercersburg a fine mansion for that period, which is still standing. In the east wall is a tablet containing his initials, R.P., almost obliterated by exposure to the elements. [Ref: Helm TODD p175-176]



Pedigree of Robert PARKER
          /-----(Unk) PARKER
 /-----William PARKER
Robert PARKER
|                           /-----John Or James TODD
|                  /-----John TODD
|                 |         \-----Isabelle PARKER
|         /-----Robert TODD
|        |         \-----Isabelle BODLEY
 \-----Elizabeth TODD
          \-----Isabella HAMILTON



Descendants of Robert PARKER

2nd generation


3rd generation