PARKER, GEORGE JOSEPH (1811-1873)

PARKER, GEORGE JOSEPH, merchant and shipbuilder; bap. Halifax, 6 Jan 1811, s/o Sacker Parker and Sophia Conrad; m. 1839, Maria Burke; d. Chatham, 5 May 1873.

George J. Parker's father came to Halifax from Virginia in 1783 and married there in 1791. In their later years he and his wife made their home on the Miramichi, where a number of their children had settled. Besides the sons mentioned below, the children included Sophia Elizabeth Parker, the wife of the Chatham merchant John Joseph, and Mary Catherine Parker, the wife of Michael Samuel.

George J. Parker and his older brother John came to Chatham as young men and were later in partnership as merchants and traders. They had at least four sailing vessels constructed, including the ship Hope in 1851 and the schooner Goldfinder in 1857. John Parker was accidentally drowned in 1858. George J. Parker advertised two stores for sale in 1864 and a shipyard at England's Hollow, but he remained in business in Chatham until his death. From 1851 onward he was also one of two commissioners of buoys and beacons for the port.

Parker and his wife, Maria Burke, had no children living with them when the different census enumerations were done. In 1861 the grammar school teacher W. Sterling Neales was one of two boarders at their home, and his successor, Richmond Shreve, was boarding there in 1871.