'Gallant Parker! Glory and Greece!': Lord Byron and Captain Sir Peter Parker

Abstract

Shortly before his death by fever in Messolonghi, Byron wrote his famous 'On this Day I Complete my Thirty-Sixth Year', in which he describes the exhaustion of his early life of passionate love and moves to a vision of the 'sword, the banner and the field, / Glory and Greece' (21-22). He embraces a 'soldier's grave' (38). This is Byron's intended grand epitaph upon his own life, but it is not the time he had contemplated such matters. In 1814, he wrote an elegy to his cousin, Captain Sir Peter Parker, killed in the American War of 1812. The purpose of this essay is to give the full background behind this little-noted poem and to suggest a relationship between it and Byron's celebrated later one. 'Elegiac Stanzas on the Death of Sir Peter Parker, Bart.' was published in the Morning Chronicle on 7 October 1814. In his comments on the elegy to James Perry, Byron states: 'I was desired by our relatives to write on the death of Sir Peter Parker (my cousin)'.1 The performance was perfunctory, and his knowledge of Parker not recent: 'I have not seen him since we were boys - but my sister knew him very well', he wrote to Annabella Milbanke. Yet he seems sincere enough when he goes on to tell Annabella that Parker's death 'is very bitter to us all'.2 He describes Parker to her as 'a very gallant & popular officer', and to Perry as 'one very much beloved', whose death is much 'regretted'.3 While he had not seen Parker since boyhood, in 1808 he planned to make him one of four trustees while he travelled abroad.4 If Parker is still known today, it is largely because of this not very remarkable poem. But Parker's fame in Regency times owed nothing to his relationship with Byron. Rather, it worked the other way around. Parker's fame stood on its own, and we shall argue that this fame may well have been fuel for Byron's own final reach for greatness. So who was this Peter Parker?5 Most importantly in relation to Byron, he was one of the distinguished British Naval relations surrounding the poet's early life. The British Navy was central in this period to Britain's control of its empire, its struggles with America, and its wars with Napoleon. Peter's grandfather, Admiral Sir Peter Parker, 1st Baronet (1721-1811), was involved in naval action against the American rebels, attacking Charleston's fortifications in 1776 as an Admiral. He was also an assistant to Lord Howe in the invasion and occupation of New York City and commander of the squadron that captured Rhode Island. At this time, he became a friend and patron of Horatio Nelson. He was made a baronet in 1783, and in 1799 he succeeded Lord Howe as Admiral of the Fleet. He was Chief Mourner at Lord Nelson's funeral in 1805. His children included Peter's father, Vice-Admiral Christopher Parker (1761-1804), who married Charlotte Augusta Byron, the sister of Byron's father, Naval Captain John Byron, the offspring of Admiral John Byron (1723-86). Thus, Parker's grandfather, father, maternal grandfather and maternal uncle were all high-ranking naval officers - while his sister, Margaret, was 'one of Byron's early loves', and 'inspired his first dash into poetry'.7 All of this may be better understood by the family tree above (Figure 1), which omits siblings not mentioned for lack of space. Parker was educated at Westminster School and entered the Royal Navy in 1798. His grandfather's connection with Lord Nelson was important, for he served under, was influenced by and, in turn, was admired by Nelson. As Commander of the armed brig HMS Weazel, Parker's command was the to sight the Franco-Spanish fleet leaving Cadiz, leading to the stupendous Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Being despatched to call back more British ships, however, he missed that battle, to his everlasting regret. Promoted to Captain, in 1810 he was given command of the 38-gun frigate HMS Menelaus. He became Baronet on his grandfather's death in 1811 (Parker's father predeceased his grandfather in 1804). …