Chester Parker

Quick Facts

Significance:

Patriot of Color at the Battle of Bunker Hill

Place of Birth:

Dracut, Massachusetts(?)

Date of Birth:

Circa 1749

The following is from the 2004 National Park Service study Patriots of Color researched and prepared by George Quintal:

Chester Parker was born circa 1749.^I

He joined the eight month’s service from Dracut on 25 May 1775 in the company of Capt. Oliver Parker, in Col. William Prescott’s regiment. This company served in the Battle of Bunker Hill in the redoubt. He was listed on the 1 August roll, on the 7 October 1775 company return and on a 31 October 1775 ‘order for bounty coat or its equivalent in money.’^II

There is no clear record of 1776 or 1777 service.^III

On 29 July 1778 he enlisted, in Capt. Joseph Bradley Varnum’s company in Col. McIntosh’s regiment in Col. Solomon Lovell’s brigade, ‘on expedition to Rhode Island.’ This unit served at the Battle of Rhode Island in August 1778. He was discharged on 11 September 1778.

A 21 July 1779 descriptive roll, dated Lincoln, lists him as ‘a negro’ and as:

age: 30 (also given 25)
Stature: 5 ft. 6 in.
Residence: Dracut

This was for service in Capt. Russell’s company under Maj. Hosmer in Brig.-Gen. Eleazar Brooks’ brigade. On 23 July 1779 he entered the service in Capt. Ebenezer Bancroft’s company in Col. Michael Jackson’s 8^th regiment. He was discharged on 23 April 1780 after 9 months’ service. His name also appears on a 24 November 1779 list of men raised in Middlesex county.

It is undoubtedly the same man who entered the service from Chelmsford on 24 August 1781, in Capt. Asa Drury’s company in Col. Turner’s regiment. After three months and eleven days service in Rhode Island, he was discharged on 30 November 1781.^IV

Footnotes:

1. Birth date backwardly-computed, based on age in military descriptive roll; age also given as 25 indicating a birth year of 1754.
2. Secretary of Commonwealth. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (1896-1908), 11:842. Also 2-CD Family Tree Maker^TM set “Military Records: Revolutionary War.” After the Battle of Bunker Hill, Capt. Parker left the service and command of the company fell to Lt. Nathaniel Sartwell. Capt. Ephraim Corey took command by October.
3. Ibid; there was a Chester Parker who served in 1776 in the White Plains campaign under Captain Joseph Butler but this man is listed as ‘deceased’ on 12 October 1776. Even so, this is probably the same man. It is not entirely out of the question for a man to have been wounded in battle or to have been taken prisoner or even to have deserted and thus to have been lost to his company and presumed dead.
4. Ibid.

Learn more about Quintal's study.