Loyalist Jonathan Parkers in 18th Century New Brunswick

There were 3 Loyalist Jonathan Parkers in New Brunswick before 1800. It is unclear how or if they were related to one another. Their origins appear to bein  New York or New Jersey. One Jonathan settled in Saint John and then Sussex, another on Campobello, although he lived in Saint John for a couple years. The third came to Belle Vue with the Quakers and Anabaptists, but disappeared from the record after 1784.

Jonathan Parker and his wife Mary were bound for Saint John on the transport Mary very late in 1783, leaving some time after October 4th. It was a civilian transport, indicating that Jonathan was not mustered with any military company at the time of travel. The family was also "recommended for charity," suggesting dire circumstances. They travelled with 3 young children, all under the age of 10 years, and appeared on civilian victualling lists in 1784, which noted the same number of children. They left town in August or September 1796, moving to Sussex, Kings County, where they built their farm and made their home. Jonathan and his wife died some time after 1823.

In August 1784, Jonathan was granted a fishing lot in the parish of Conway, Saint John, and a town lot in Parr Town, on the opposite side of the river. The next year he also received a town lot in Carleton. It is clear that the Conway and Carleton lots belonged to the same Jonathan, as there are deeds recorded of he and his wife selling the lots. We can find no evidence that the Parr Town lot was ever occupied or improved by the grantee, and there is no record of the lot being sold by the grantee. So it was probably escheated, and maybe regranted. We might guess that Jonathan found the Parr Town lot less convenient to his fishing lot, and applied for a lot on the Carleton side of town. But we don't have record of such a petition, so we must speculate.

Jonathan Parker who lived at Saint John and Sussex was the only Jonathan Parker with a family at the time of the settlement of the province. So he must be the same one who applied for a grant of land on the St Croix River in 1785. The petition stated that he was among several men seeking land, all of whom had families. The Memorial indicated that Jonathan was a "Carpenter and Boate Builder and good Farmer." In later years while living in Sussex, Jonathan worked as a wheelright, an occupation with similar skills as a carpenter and boat builder might have. Jonathan's desire to be close to navigable water-the fishing lot in Conway, the St Croix River, and later the on the Long Reach of the Saint John River in Sussex-would be explained if he was using his boat building skills. He was never granted any land on the St Croix, so the Saint John/Sussex Parkers never crossed paths with the Campobello Parkers.

The Camel left New York shortly after August 29th 1783, bringing several Parkers to New Brunswick. The ship arrived at Saint John on September 18th, and that was probably where the passengers were victualled. The ship continued down the coast and on September 29th arrived at "Passamaquoddy." It is unlcear what Passamaquoddy means in this instance, although the term was generally used to refer to the region on either side of the St Croix River and around the Passamaquoddy Bay. We do know, though, that the Camel passengers settled as a group in the Beaver Harbour area, and many were counted in a return of residents there in July 1784, including numerous Parkers.

There are several lists of Camel passengers taken at different times, showing different swaths of the passengers in total. Taking the one that shows the greatest numbers, and apparently the most comprehensive list, we find these adult Parker men: Elisha, Benjamin, John, Samuel, Jonathan, Jonathan, and Joseph. Elisha, Benjamin and Joseph were the only married men. We have previously concluded that Benjamin, John, Samuel and Jonathan are a family group, Benjamin being the father, and the others his adult (21+) sons. Whether the remaining Parker men-Elisha, Jonathan and Joseph-are related to one another, or to Benjamin, we cannot say. Their idential surnames, suspected similar religious bent, colony of origin, and of course their traveling together strongly suggest some sort of relationship beyond coincidence. And we could hesitantly conclude a close relationship if these Parkers remained close together geographically. But that is not the case.

Elijah (or Elisha) was the head of a household in one of the Camel muster lists, with 1 woman and no children. We can conclude the adult Jane Parker on the Camel list to be his wife. Jane is probably dead by 1784, when another muster is taken at Beaver Harbour. We also suspect that the Elijah who was settled in the center of the Province in 1785 was the same man. He applied for land in Queensbury in 1787, but we don't find record of him again.

Joseph and his wife Elizabeth were from Shrewsbury, Monmouth, New Jersey, and had 3 children at the time of their arrival in New Brunswick. They were in Beaver Harbour as late as the sumer of 1787, and Jonathan was granted 2 lots there in 1788. We find no further record of him in New Brunswick after that. In fact, he never appears to have taken up on either lot, and there is no record of his disposal of the land. It is possible he returned to Shrewsbury, as we find land records there of a Joseph and Elizabeth Parker at the turn of the century.

The final Jonathan Parker on the Camel leaves little documentary evidence. He is on most of the Camel lists, heading a household that only he belongs to. He is again counted in 1784 at Beaver Harbour. After that we find no trace of him. There is no evidence that any of the 3 lots granted in Saint John belonged to him. We find no grants for him elsewhere, nor any land transactions at all. Who was he and what happened to him?

The simplest answer to the question of what became of this lone Jonathan Parker was that he died soon after the 1784 muster roll. He may have left the area as well, perhaps going to the interior of the province like Elisha, perhaps returning to New Jersey like Joseph.

He was possibly-even likely-related to the other Parkers on the Camel, but just how and to whom are questions that aren't likely to be answered. It has been suggested that he may have been the father of Benjamin Parker, but this seems unlikely, or, more precisely, we have nothing to suggest that apart from his name. If Benjamin was born sometime in the 1720s or 1730, his father (whoever he might be), would have been born the latest in the 1700s or 1710s, and would have been in his 70s or 80s, at the youngest, at the time of the evacuation. Although not impossible for an aged man to travel and settle a wilderness, if seems unlikely.

There were 3 adult Jonathan Parkers who settled in New Brunswick after the Revolutionary War. Although they may have been related distanly, it is certainly unclear how.