Parker Family Page
Welcome to The Parker Family Page, which furnishes historical detail beyond the site index, exploring the evidence for three generations of Parkers in the line of Nathaniel Parker of Virginia.
8. Julia Parker (Bateman) -- The mother of John Bateman, Julia Parker was born ca.1780 Virginia (probably Culpeper Co.) and died in Jackson Co. TN sometime before 1860. Around 1795 she married William Bateman who was born in Tyrrell Co., NC and died in 1811 in Dickson Co., TN. He reportedly brought most of his family to Dickson Co., TN in 1807 but died there a few years later. The couple had three children: John, Jeremiah and Edwin. Although Find-a-grave puts Julia's date of birth at 1775, there doesn't seem to be a surviving marker giving this date and the birthdate given by the 1850 census (1780) seems preferable. A 1836 Humphreys Co, TN tax record lists the widow Julia Bateman and her land holdings; she also appears as the head of household on the 1830 & 1840 Humphreys Co. censuses. The 1850 Humphreys Co. census shows Julia Parker age 70, living with her son, Jeremiah, and his family. (By 1860, she has died and Jeremiah's family has moved to KY.)
I have found two possible sets of parents for Julia Parker. The first is based on Parkers on the Humphreys Co. TN censuses who live next door to Hoopers of my line. In the 1820 census Joshua Parker lives next to Bailey Hooper and John Hooper (Larkin's uncle and father). Bailey married Francis Parker, Joshua's sister, and in the 1850 census Bailey and Francis live next door to widow Julia Parker (Bateman) and some of her children. Larkin Hooper’s aunt was Francis Parker, wife of his uncle Bailey Hooper, and it appears possible that Larkin’s wife, Julia Emmeline Bateman, was the granddaughter of Julia Parker Bateman, who may have been Francis Parker and Joshua Parker's sister. The parents of Francis and Joshua Parker (and possibly Julia Parker) were Samuel Parker (ca. 1757-1820) and Mary Cooley (ca. 1757-1827). Samuel and Mary Parker were both born in Virginia (as were Francis, Joshua and Julia) and died in Humphreys Co. TN where Francis, Joshua and Julia resided until their deaths. I have numerous DNA matches to the descendants of Samuel and Mary Parker; some of them can be explained by intermarriages between various Parker and Hooper descendants, but not all. Of the two possible sets of parents for Julia Parker that I am presenting, I find the first the most likely in terms of proximity.
The other possible parents for Julia Parker are found in numerous trees on Ancestry.com, where Julia's parents are listed (with no supporting evidence) as Rev. John Parker (born in 1758 in Baltimore, MD; killed at Fort Parker, Limestone, TX in 1836) and Sara "Sallie" White (born in 1759 in Culpeper Co. VA; died in 1824 in Illinois). There is some evidence that John and Sarah married in between 1779-1785 in Culpeper Co. VA which would fit with the birth of Julia in VA around that time (1780 per the 1850 census). Although most lists of John and Sarah's children do not include Julia, there is no will or other reliable list of their children that I an aware of. As I have 9 atDNA matches to John and Sara Parker, and Julia is born in VA during their residence there, there is a strong possibility that John and Sara are Julia's parents.
Note: There is a book entitled Frontier Blood: The Saga of the Parker Family by Jo Ella Powell Exley, which tells the story of the family but does not explore the genealogical side. It does cite Daniel (b.1781) as the first known child of John and Sarah and does not mention a daughter named Julia. Without a known Virginia county of birth or marriage county for Julia, DNA evidence offers the best clue to establishing Julia's birth family. I have matches between Julia and the following children of Elder John Parker: 2 to Daniel (b.1781), 2 to William Henry (b.1782), 2 to John Jr. (b.1783), 2 to Mary Jane “Polly" Kendrick (b.1785), 1 to Abigail Sara Dixon (b.1784 in Culpeper Co. VA) and 1 to Silas Mercer Parker (b.1804). Of these 10 matches one person can be confidently ruled out as a child of John and Sara: William Henry (born in South Carolina in 1782). The situation is complicated by the fact that Y-DNA testing shows, for instance, that there were at least 5 distinct Parker families in Hampshire Co.VA a generation before Julia's birth, so it is possible that she came from another Parker line closely related to John's. However the amount of DNA matches between Julia's and John's line is hard to account for if Julia is not related to John and Sara. Below is a timeline showing how Julia could potentially fit into this family:
John Parker born in 1758 in Baltimore, MD
Sara White born in 1759 in Culpeper Co., VA
John Parker came to Culpeper Co. VA by 1777 where he enlisted for military service for 12 months
Parker marriage 1779 in Culpeper Co., VA
Julia Parker born in VA in 1780
Daniel Parker b. in 1781 in Culpeper Co., VA (became a well known Baptist preacher & IL. state senator)
John Parker joins Rev. War in Culpeper Co., VA
William Bateman born in 1782 in Tyrrell Co., NC
After the war, the Parker family moved to Elbert County, Georgia about 1785
Mary “Polly” Parker born in 1785 in Elbert County, Georgia
Julia married William Bateman around 1795 (where?)
Parker family moved to the area of now Nashville TN (known as Nashboro at that time) in 1803
Silas Mercer Parker Sr. born in 1804 in Bedford County, Tennessee (killed in TX 1836)
William and Julia moved to Dickson Co., TN in 1807 with 3 children
William Bateman died in 1811 in Dickson Co., TN
1817 the Parker family moved again to the area of Crawford/Coles County, Illinois
Sara White Parker died in 1821 or 24 in Illinois: John remarried the widow Sarah Pinson Duty
1833 Parker family moved to Limestone, TX and built Fort Parker
1836 Humphreys Co, TN tax record lists the widow Julia Bateman
1836 John Parker and several sons killed at Fort Parker in Limestone, TX by Comanche Indians
Julia died between 1851-1859 and was buried in Jackson. TN
8. "Elder" John Parker -- Possibly the father of Julia Parker Bateman, John Parker was born Sept 5, 1758 in Baltimore Co, Maryland (per his 22 Oct 1833 Coles County, IL Revolutionary War Pension application). Around 1779 he married Sara "Sallie" White (born July 10, 1759 in Culpeper Co., VA and died July 28, 1824 in Cotes Co. Illinois). Sallie's parents are unknown. (Page 4 of Frontier Blood cites Benjamin White as her father, who "according to family legend, was the first judge of Culpeper County," however his parentage of Sara is unproven.) John became a preacher in the Primitive Baptist Church, which called their ministers "Elder" rather than reverend; hence his title as Elder John. Together the couple had about 13 children, some of whom are: Daniel Parker, James William Parker, Nathaniel Parker, Julia Parker, Silas Mercer Parker, Benjamin F. W. Parker, Mary Jane Kendrick, Susannah Starr and Isaac Duke Parker. Below is a biographical sketch of John Parker from Find-a-grave written by a Parker descendant named Scott Nicholson:
"Elder John Parker as he was known was born in Maryland in 1758. It is unknown with certainty who his parents were. As a young man he fought in the American Revolution. As a young man he moved to the Culpepper County Virginia area and married Sarah "Sally" White there in November of 1779. John and Sally had 13 children together. After the 3 youngest children were born in Culpepper County the family moved to Elbert county, Georgia about 1785. they would have 9 children in Georgia before moving to the area of now Nashville Tennessee (known as Nashboro at that time) in 1803. Around 1817 the family moved again to the area of Crawford/Coles County Illinois. The family rose to prominence in Illinois; the oldest son Daniel became a well known baptist preacher and was elected to the Illinois State Senate. In 1833 John and his family looked at moving again, this time to the new frontier of Texas. Johns son led the initial group to Texas in 1833 where he secured land grants for the family from what was then still Mexico. The land was in what was known as the "Comancheria" near present day Groesebeck, Texas. Several of John’s sons built a fort on the land in beginning in 1833. In the fall of 1835 John joined his sons in Texas at Ft. Parker. Sally had died in Illinois in 1824 and John had remarried to the widow, Sarah Pinson Duty (who was the mother of 2 of his son’s wives). On May 19, 1836 in the early morning hours the Fort was attacked by a band of Comanche and Kiowa Indians. John was killed at the fort along with his sons Benjamin and Silas as well as Samuel and Robert Frost. Several women and children were captured including an 8 year old Cynthia Ann Parker, John’s granddaughter, whose father, Silas, was killed that day at the fort. She would spend 25 years living with the Comanche, marry a Comanche chief named Peta Nacona and her oldest child, Quanah, would eventually become the last chief of the Comanche Indians."
9. Nathaniel Parker -- While the parents of Elder John Parker are not definitely proven, Rev. Nathaniel Parker and Ann Clayton (born in 1726 in Gloucester Co, VA and died ca. 1790 in Hampshire, VA) are often cited as his parents. Nathaniel Parker was born ca.1729 in Essex County, Virginia and died ca. 1790 in Hampshire, Virginia. There were two different Nathaniel Parkers who lived in Hampshire, VA in 1760s, who are often confused with one another but have now been determined to be of different Y-DNA haplogroups. One was born around 1730 and married Elizabeth Scott and moved with his family to Sumner Co. TN, where he died between 1803 and 1811. He left a will clearly identifying his children and, other than a son named John (b.1765), his children have different names than the children of the other Nathaniel. It is difficult to obtain more certain information about the Nathaniel who is thought to be Elder John's father as so many of the pre-Civil War Virginia records have not survived. But one "negative" point of evidence is that there are no records indicating that Nathaniel ever resided in Baltimore Co. MD where Elder John was born, which tends to cast doubt on his identification as Elder John's father.