Following a very successful Smithfield Patriot’s Day it is well to reflect on the exceptional life of perhaps our county’s most notable patriot, Colonel Josiah Parker. For the record, he was born at his family’s homestead “Macclesfield” on the James River in northern Isle of Wight County 11 May 1751 and also died there 11 March 1810. The name reflects the Parker Family’s ancestral estates in England and, also for the record, is pronounced “mack-suls-field” from the English practice of differentiating between twin consonants. The name for this area on Smith Neck in present-day Carrollton is often misspelled and therefore pronounced incorrectly.
The Parker Family had established themselves here in 1638 by land grant only four years after the founding of our county. To put Josiah Parker�s renown into context, please call to mind the famous historical painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze. Josiah Parker is portrayed immediately behind George Washington in that famous overcrowded boat in which they should have all been seated rather than standing. This painting symbolizes the Continental Army’s brilliant Christmas attack on a Hessian garrison in winter quarters at Trenton, New Jersey. Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Parker heroically lead Virginia�s Fifth Regiment of Foot across the Delaware River to be the first to engage the German grenadiers who were quickly routed. This epic battle on a cold December morning included many soldiers from Isle of Wight County and was an unbelievable American victory, which turned the tide of revolution in favor of the colonists. For his gallant efforts Josiah Parker received the sword of surrender from the defeated commander Colonel Johann Gottlieb Rall. This event is also reflected in another famous period painting by John Trumbull: Capture of the Hessians at Trenton. Copies of both paintings are on display in Boykin’s Tavern at Isle of Wight, Virginia.
But even before the embattled farmer shot heard �round the world� on Lexington Green which started the whole thing, Parker was a staunch supporter of �independency.� In January of 1775, he was elected, at age 23, a founding member of Isle of Wight County�s first revolutionary �County Committee� whose purpose was to secure guns and powder for the militia to enforce the boycott of British imports. In December of 1775 he commanded Virginia Militia troops at Great Bridge and when the Continental Army was established he received a Major�s commission and then was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in August of 1776. Immediately following the fighting at Trenton, Parker gained George Washington�s praise when three Virginia regiments under Parker�s command held the Assunpink Bridge against Lord Cornwallis thus enabling Washington�s Army to successfully defeat the British at Princeton. The brilliantly led battles of Trenton and Princeton ��fanned the dying embers of the Revolution into lively flame.� Parker was then promoted to Colonel in April of 1777 and went on to be called �a hero� in the Virginia Gazette for his extraordinarily brave leadership at the Battle of Brandywine Creek in September when his regiment was the only patriot unit capable of standing against the British thus saving the rest of the Continental Army. Returning to his home in Isle of Wight in early 1778 to care for his family he was called to duty again in 1780 when the British Army�s southern campaign reached Suffolk. He became commander of all Virginia Militia units south of the James River in January of 1781 and helped counter the invasions of Southern Virginia by Benedict Arnold and Charles Cornwallis. Although he was unable to stop the British and German incursion into Isle of Wight County at the fighting at Mackie�s Mill just south of Smithfield, Parker subsequently defeated British forces under Banastre Tarleton at Scott�s Old Field in Nansemond County on 24 July 1781. During the War for American Independence, Josiah Parker was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates to represent his district in 1779, 1782 and 1783 and following the war he was selected Naval Officer of the Elizabeth River District at Portsmouth because of his long-time passion and experience in Navy affairs. He was elected to the US Congress in 1789 and served four terms through 1801. Parker participated in the vote to pass the Bill of Rights and from 1793-99 was Chairman of the House Committee for Naval Affairs. On this committee he received congressional approval in 1796 to build America�s first three frigates: USS Constitution, Constellation and United States and as a result of his advocacy for a strong navy, congress established the US Navy in 1799. For his efforts, Josiah Parker has been called �the father of the American Navy.� During his tenure in Congress, Parker was the first Congressman to verbally oppose the practice of slavery. Although a slave owner himself by inheritance, he expressed the hope that �Congress would do all in its power to restore to human nature its inherent privileges; to wipe off, if possible, the stigma under which America labored; to do away with the inconsistency in our principles�and to show by our actions the pure beneficence of the doctrine held out to the world in our Declaration of Independence.� At his death in 1810, the Parker Family slave holdings at Macclesfield had dwindled to eight, possibly one family. The historical record is not clear as to their disposition but we do know that Josiah himself was instrumental in the freeing of slave Saul Matthews who assisted the patriot cause in 1781. At the local level, Josiah Parker also served almost twenty years as a magistrate for Isle of Wight County. Magistrates or �Justices of the Peace� were the predecessors of our current county Board of Supervisors, who functioned then as both a judicial and legislative body. In the last years of his life, Josiah Parker engaged in business and family pursuits in Isle of Wight and its� new Town of Smithfield. This most notable and favorite son of Isle of Wight County rests today in an unmarked grave near the site of his beloved family farm at Macclesfield.
