John Parker

John Parker (1756 to 1832), known in later life as Col. John Parker, was a Billerica tanner who served eight years on the Select Board and represented the town in the General Court in 1805. He was born on May 9, 1756, the son of the tanner John Parker, who had come from Bradford and built up a prosperous tannery on the brook south of the Common, and of Abigail (Kidder) Parker. In the Revolution he served as a sergeant: Hazen's list of Billerica soldiers records "Sergt. John Parker, jr." in the service of 1775, which took in the minute-men and the men at Lexington and Cambridge, and again in 1777, the year Billerica men marched to reinforce the Northern Army against Burgoyne.

On December 30, 1778, he married Mary Shattuck. Their children were John, who died at twelve in 1792; the twins Mary, who died in infancy, and Ann, who never married; Henry Parker (1784); David Parker (1786), later a storekeeper at the Centre; and Frederick Augustus Parker (1789), who graduated from Harvard and practised medicine in Salem. Mary died on December 1, 1794, and on December 27, 1795, he married Susanna Minot, daughter of Timothy Minot of Concord. Their children were Maria, who married the lawyer and long-time town clerk Marshall Preston; John Minot and Susanna Mirick, baptized in 1802; and George (1805), who later lived in Rockford, Illinois.

He was a selectman from 1791 to 1795, in 1797 and 1798, and in 1802, years in which the town built its squadron schoolhouses and, in 1797, its new meeting house; at the sale of pews that paid for the building, on December 8, 1797, "Maj. John Parker" bought pew 33 on the lower floor for $116. His father's will, made in 1801 and proved in 1803, left him "the tan-house and tan-yard" with a strip of land running west from the Common, while his brother Stephen Parker received the family house and "the Ruggles farm" on Concord Road. In 1805, the year Farmer's memoir and Hazen record "Col. John Parker" as the town's representative, he bought for $1,300 the half acre and house "about fifty rods south of the meeting house" on the road to Boston that adjoined his tan house, the old Rev. John Chandler House; in 1831 he and his wife deeded it to their son David, who lived there for decades.

By 1819 he was living in the old Samuel Ruggles House on Concord Road south of the Common, and that year Stephen sold him for $1,200 the five acres "near the said John Parker's dwelling house ... enclosed with a stone wall all round." His will of December 20, 1831, left his wife Susan two thirds and his daughter Ann one third of "my House Lot in Billerica, consisting of about twelve acres of land, with a Dwelling House, Barn & outbuildings," gave David half the tanyard and Maria the Minister Lot, remembered his grandsons Francis James, Charles Henry Parker and Frederic Augustus Parker, and named Marshall Preston executor. Col. John Parker died on March 14, 1832, aged 76, and was buried in the Old South Burying Ground. Susanna died on October 15, 1841, aged 76.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 105, PARKER 17
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), list of soldiers from Billerica in the Revolutionary War: Parker, Sergt. John, jr., services of 1775 and 1777
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 306, list of selectmen: John Parker, jr., 1791-95, 1797-98, 1802
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 304, list of representatives: John Parker, 1805
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 263, sale of pews in the new meeting house, Dec. 8, 1797: pew 33, Maj. John Parker, $116
6. Farmer, Historical Memoir of Billerica (1816), p. 31 note: representatives, "1805, Col. John Parker"
7. Vital Records of Billerica (1908), births: John, s. John and Abigail Parker, May 9, 1756, and his children
8. Vital Records of Billerica (1908), marriages: John Parker Jr. and Mary Shattuck, Dec. 30, 1778; and Susanna Minot of Concord, Dec. 27, 1795
9. Vital Records of Billerica (1908), deaths: John Parker Sr., Mar. 14, 1832 (gravestone: Col. John, aged 76, Old South Cemetery)
10. Middlesex County probate case 16643: will of his father John Parker, tanner (1801, proved 1803), leaving him the tan-house and tan-yard
11. Middlesex County probate case 16646: will of John Parker of Billerica, dated Dec. 20, 1831, proved June 5, 1832 (twelve-acre house lot, tanyard, legacies)

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.