extraordinary story was published in the
Newgate Calendar,
and Ann Parker, who found herself at the center of one of the most notorious events in British maritime historyâthe Mutiny at the Nore.
3
Ann Parker and the Mutiny at the Nore
S AILORSâ WIVES HAD more than their fair share of anxiety and grief, but few had to endure the agony of Ann Parker. She arrived at Sheerness shortly before her husband was due to be executed. She was too late to be allowed on board HMS
Sandwich
to see him and exchange a few last words with him, but she was not too late to witness his body being hanged from the yardarm of the ship. Richard Parker went to his death not knowing that his wife was among the thousands of onlookers who had gathered to watch the final episode in a drama that had gripped the nation. 1
Apart from the heroic determination that she showed in the days before and after the execution, nothing is known of Ann Parker beyond the fact that she was a farmerâs daughter from Aberdeen. Her husbandâs early years are almost as obscure. Richard Parker was born in Exeter around 1764. He is believed to have come from a respectable family and to have obtained a good education, but at the age of nineteen he was taken by the press gang in Plymouth. He was imprisoned in a navy tender and transported to London, where he was forced to join the crew of the 74-gun ship HMS
Ganges.
Unusual for a pressed man, he was promoted to midshipman, which suggests that he may have had some seafaring experience in merchant ships. According to one source, he was discharged from the
Ganges
for immoral conduct and transferred to the sloop
Bulldog
as an ordinary seaman. 2 He served on the
Bulldog
until June 1784, when he was discharged sick to Haslar Hospital. He seems to have remained in the navy for a few more years and to have been promoted to petty officer or acting lieutenant.
At some point Parker came into an inheritance, left the navy, and settled in Scotland, where he met and married Ann. Like many others before him and others since, being unemployed and having money to spend led him into a life of gambling and dissipation. He soon spent his entire fortune, ran into debt, and ended up in an Edinburgh jail. At the outbreak of the war with Revolutionary France in 1793, he volunteered to rejoin the navy and was released from prison after paying his creditor with part of the bounty he received from the commissioning officer. From Edinburghâs port of Leith, he was transported south to the Nore with volunteers and pressed men, and was signed on to HMS
Sandwich
as a supernumerary.
Parker rejoined the navy at a critical time. After years of grumbling about their wretched conditions, the seamen of the channel fleet at Spithead had united in protest and on April 15, 1797, they submitted a petition to the Admiralty in which they demanded better food, shore leave on returning to port, pay for those injured, and above all, an increase in their wages, which had not changed since 1653. Senior officers were generally sympathetic to the menâs requests, and with the country at war with France, they needed a fighting navy manned by loyal hands. Within eight days the Admiralty had agreed to all the demands, but when the fleet was ordered to sea on May 7, the men refused to obey their officers because they did not believe the promises that had been made. An Act of Parliament was hastily passed, and on May 14, Admiral Lord Howe arrived at Portsmouth with the news that all the menâs demands would be met and that a pardon would be provided for the Spithead mutineers.
Meanwhile, unrest had spread among the ships anchored at the Nore, and Parker became a leading figure among the seamenâs delegates. In addition to the concessions made to the men at Spithead, which had been extended to the whole navy by the act, the Nore seamen wanted a more equal distribution of prize money, the payment of arrears of wages before the ship went to sea,
Newgate Calendar,
and Ann Parker, who found herself at the center of one of the most notorious events in British maritime historyâthe Mutiny at the Nore.
3
Ann Parker and the Mutiny at the Nore
S AILORSâ WIVES HAD more than their fair share of anxiety and grief, but few had to endure the agony of Ann Parker. She arrived at Sheerness shortly before her husband was due to be executed. She was too late to be allowed on board HMS
Sandwich
to see him and exchange a few last words with him, but she was not too late to witness his body being hanged from the yardarm of the ship. Richard Parker went to his death not knowing that his wife was among the thousands of onlookers who had gathered to watch the final episode in a drama that had gripped the nation. 1
Apart from the heroic determination that she showed in the days before and after the execution, nothing is known of Ann Parker beyond the fact that she was a farmerâs daughter from Aberdeen. Her husbandâs early years are almost as obscure. Richard Parker was born in Exeter around 1764. He is believed to have come from a respectable family and to have obtained a good education, but at the age of nineteen he was taken by the press gang in Plymouth. He was imprisoned in a navy tender and transported to London, where he was forced to join the crew of the 74-gun ship HMS
Ganges.
Unusual for a pressed man, he was promoted to midshipman, which suggests that he may have had some seafaring experience in merchant ships. According to one source, he was discharged from the
Ganges
for immoral conduct and transferred to the sloop
Bulldog
as an ordinary seaman. 2 He served on the
Bulldog
until June 1784, when he was discharged sick to Haslar Hospital. He seems to have remained in the navy for a few more years and to have been promoted to petty officer or acting lieutenant.
At some point Parker came into an inheritance, left the navy, and settled in Scotland, where he met and married Ann. Like many others before him and others since, being unemployed and having money to spend led him into a life of gambling and dissipation. He soon spent his entire fortune, ran into debt, and ended up in an Edinburgh jail. At the outbreak of the war with Revolutionary France in 1793, he volunteered to rejoin the navy and was released from prison after paying his creditor with part of the bounty he received from the commissioning officer. From Edinburghâs port of Leith, he was transported south to the Nore with volunteers and pressed men, and was signed on to HMS
Sandwich
as a supernumerary.
Parker rejoined the navy at a critical time. After years of grumbling about their wretched conditions, the seamen of the channel fleet at Spithead had united in protest and on April 15, 1797, they submitted a petition to the Admiralty in which they demanded better food, shore leave on returning to port, pay for those injured, and above all, an increase in their wages, which had not changed since 1653. Senior officers were generally sympathetic to the menâs requests, and with the country at war with France, they needed a fighting navy manned by loyal hands. Within eight days the Admiralty had agreed to all the demands, but when the fleet was ordered to sea on May 7, the men refused to obey their officers because they did not believe the promises that had been made. An Act of Parliament was hastily passed, and on May 14, Admiral Lord Howe arrived at Portsmouth with the news that all the menâs demands would be met and that a pardon would be provided for the Spithead mutineers.
Meanwhile, unrest had spread among the ships anchored at the Nore, and Parker became a leading figure among the seamenâs delegates. In addition to the concessions made to the men at Spithead, which had been extended to the whole navy by the act, the Nore seamen wanted a more equal distribution of prize money, the payment of arrears of wages before the ship went to sea,