Parker, Samuel (2), son of bishop Samuel Parker, was an excellent scholar, but a man of singular mod- esty. He married a bookseller's daughter at Oxford, where he resided, and appears to have had a situation in the Bodleian Librarj*. Parker declined taking the oaths at the Revolution, and therefore did not enter into orders. He published Bibliotheca Biblica ; being a Commentary upon all the Books of the Old and New Tes- taments, gathered out of the genuine Writings of Euthers and ecclesiastical Historians, and Acts of Councils doion to the Year of our Lord 451, etc. ; comjjrehending the proper allegorical, or mystic, and moral Import of the Text, etc. [anonymous] (Oxf. 1720, etc., 5 vols. 4to). This is a commentary of profound learning and re- search. It is to be regretted that it was not carried beyond the Pentateuch: — An Abridgment of the Ec- clesiastical History of Eusebius. His son founded the bookselling establishment at Oxford which still remains in the family. — Darling, Cyclop. Bibliogr. ii, s. v.
Parker, Samnel (3), D.D., an American prelate, was born in Portsmouth, N. H., Aug. 28, 1744, and passed A.B. in Harvard, 1764. He then became a teacher, and after having for nine years followed this profession, de- termined to enter the ministry. Though educated in the Congregational Church, he repaired to England for or- dination by the bishop of London, and in 1773 became assistant in Trinity Church, Boston. During the Revo- lution he was in imminent peril for his royalist declara- tions, and was at length obliged to omit the praj'ers for the king. In 1779 he became rector of Trinity Church, New York, and was actively engaged as agent for the propagation of the Gospel. In 1803, upon the death of bishop Bass, Parker was elected bishop. He died, how- ever, only a little while later, Dec. 6, 1804. Bishop Parker was distinguished for his benevolence. He was a devoted and considerate friend of the poor, who in his death mourned the loss of a father. His publications are. The A nnual Election Sermon before the Legislature of 3Iass. (1793) : — A Sermon for the Benefit of the Bos- ton Female Asylum (1803); and other occasional ser- mons. See Spraguc, Annals of the American Puljrit, v, 296.
Parker, Samuel (4), a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the most eminent pioneers of Methodism in the AVest, was born in New Jersey about 1774. He was converted at fourteen; in the year 1805 he entered the itinerancy; in 1809-1813 was presiding elder on Indiana District, which was then one of the most important fields of the Church, and was greatly improved and enlarged under his labors; in 1814 he was on Miami District; and in 1815-1819 on Kentucky District. An important position in the Mis- sissippi Conference needed a strong man, and thither the bishops sent him in 1819, but he was soon stricken down with disease, and died Dec. 20 of the same year. His preaching was of the most eloquent and irresistible
PARKER
690
PARKER
character. He possessed an exceedingly mus'ical voice, a clear, keen mind, an imagination which, though never extravagant, attorded frequent and brilliant illustrations of his subject, while his ardent piety imparted wonder- ful tenderness and power to his appeals. Withal his personal appearance was striking. He was nearly six feet in height, and had a remarkably intellectual coun- tenance, with a full forehead, and a black, piercing eye. Parker's whole life was one of ceaseless and glorious toil for the kingdom of Christ. He was one of the princes of Israel, and his early death deprived the Church of one of her most needed laborers in the West. He was a man of genius, and was called the Cicero of the A\'estern Methodist ministry. See Minutes of the Annual Confei-ences, i, 358 ; Meth. Mag. 1825, art. Wm. Beauchamp, et al. ; Stevens, Ilist. of the Meth. Epis. Church, iv, 365, 378 ; Finley, Sketches of Westei-n Meth- odism, p. 200 ; McFerrin, 11 ist.of Methodism in Tennessee, ii, 321 sq. ; Redford, Hist, of Methodism in Kentucky (see Index in vol. ii). (J. H.W.)
Parker, Samuel (5), a Presbyterian minister, was born at Ashlield, Mass., April 23, 1779. He was of Pu- ritan ancestrj^, noted for their piety and decided char- acter. During 1798 and 1801 he pursued his prepara- tory studies under the superintendence first of the Kev. Mr. Strong, of Williamsburg, Mass., and afterwards of Dr. Smith, of Ashfield. He graduated at Williams Col- lege in 1806, taught a year in the acaderaj' at Brattle- boro, Vt., and in the fall of 1807 went to Shelborough, Mass., and commenced theological study with the Kev. Theophilus Packard. In the pecuniary straits, as well as the demand for duty, he was licensed at the end of the year 1808 by the Northern Congregational Associa- tion of Hampshire County to go to Steuben County, N.Y., and to Northern Pennsylvania. After three months there, he entered the Andover Theological Seminary, and graduated with the first class of that institution, immediately after which he was sent by the Massa- chusetts Missionary Society to Middle and Southern New York, In 1812 he was called to Danby, N. Y. ; was ordained and installed pastor Dec. 23 of that year, and continued to labor there for fifteen years, when he was called to become financial agent to New England for Auburn Theological Seminary. In 1830 he became pastor of the Church at Apulia, N. Y. ; in 1833 of the Congregational Church at Middlefield, Mass.; and in 1835, 1830, and 1837 he made his exploring tour be- yond the Rocky Mountains, under the American Board of Foreign Tlissions — the result of which was the estab- lishment of several missions. After his return he wrote his book on Oregon, and spent several years in lecturing and SM])i)Iying pulpits temporarily. lie died March 2-1, 1800. Mr. Parker was in character a bold, decided man, full of energy and resolution, doing with his might whatever he undertook. His preaching was sound, doctrinal, and scriptural. He was a distinguished coun- sellor in Church polity and discipline. Naturally a fine scholar, he took an interest in languages, science, and art, as well as in the practical duties of life. He claimed to be the first to suggest the possibility of a railroad through the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. He pub- lished the journal of an h'.rploriiif/ Tour hei/ond the Rocky MonntniHS, 1835, 1830, 1837 (Ithaca, 1838, 12mo; Lond. 1841, 8vo; 5th Amer. ed. Auburn, 1840, 12mo). See North A mer. liei: Jan. 1840, p. 129; Lond. Monthly Rev. Nov. 1838, p. 349; Lond. A then. 1838, p. 790; Wilson, Presb. Hist. Almanac, 1807, p. 315; Record of the Alumni of Dartmouth College. (J. L. S.)