. Devonshire characters and strange events. ker received a goodeducation, and at the age of twelve went to sea. Heserved in the Royal Navy as midshipman and mastersmate. But he threw up his profession on his marriagewith Anne McHardy, a young woman resident inExeter, but of Scottish origin, a member of a respect-able family in Aberdeen. This connexion led Parker to remove to Scotland,where he embarked in some mercantile speculationsthat proved unsuccessful. The issue was that beforelong he found himself in embarrassed circumstances,and unable to maintain his wife and two children. InEdinburgh,
. Devonshire characters and strange events. ker received a goodeducation, and at the age of twelve went to sea. Heserved in the Royal Navy as midshipman and mastersmate. But he threw up his profession on his marriagewith Anne McHardy, a young woman resident inExeter, but of Scottish origin, a member of a respect-able family in Aberdeen. This connexion led Parker to remove to Scotland,where he embarked in some mercantile speculationsthat proved unsuccessful. The issue was that beforelong he found himself in embarrassed circumstances,and unable to maintain his wife and two children. InEdinburgh, where these difficulties arose, he had nofriends to whom he could apply for assistance, and ina moment of desperation he took the Kings bounty,and became a common sailor on board a tender atLeith. When he announced to his wife the steps hehad taken, she hastened to Aberdeen in great distressto procure from her brother the means of hiring twoseamen as substitutes for her husband. But when shereturned with the money from Aberdeen it was too. 7i fr-L. /:i /r:iiA:j-i: RICHARD PARKER, THE MUTINEER 357 late, for the tender had just sailed with her husbandon board. Her grief was aggravated at this time bythe loss of one of her children. Parkers sufferingswere shown to be equally acute by his conduct whenthe vessel sailed, crying out that he saw the body ofhis child floating upon the waves ; he leaped overboard,and was with difficulty rescued and restored to life. In the early days of May, 1797, Parker reached theNore, a point of land dividing the mouth of the Thamesand the Medway. Probably on account of his formerexperience as a seaman, he was drafted on board theSandwich, the guardship that bore the flag of AdmiralBuckner, the Port Admiral. The mutinous spirit whichafterwards broke out certainly existed on board theNore squadron before Parkers arrival. Communica-tions were kept up in secret between the various crews,and the mischief was gradually drawing to a though
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