Richard Parker

Richard Parker (December 22, 1810 – November 10, 1893) was a nineteenth-century politician, lawyer, and judge from Virginia.

Biography

Parker was born in Richmond, Virginia, the son of Judge and Senator Richard E. Parker.

He was the paymaster at the Harpers Ferry Armory, and was a slave owner.

He held several local offices before being elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in 1848, serving from 1849 to 1851. He was elected judge of the thirteenth judicial circuit of Virginia on January 15, 1851. In this capacity, Parker presided over the trials of John Brown and his associates in 1859, sentencing them to death for their raid on nearby Harpers Ferry.

Parker left the court in 1869, when the Union Army occupying Virginia shut courts down, and resumed practicing law in Winchester, Virginia, until his death there on November 10, 1893. He was interred in Mount Hebron Cemetery in Winchester.

Parker's enslaved worker Presley Dunwood, who drove the carriage that took Judge Parker to court during John Brown's trial, published memoirs.

Publications

Archival material There are 87 items in the John Brown papers at Atlanta University. There are 134 items in the Chicago History Museum Research Center. There are 38 items in the Stoddert Family papers at the University of Maryland Libraries