Isaac Parker

• General Notes
  • Lt. Isaac Parker
    1680 - 1762
    
    Lt. Isaac Parker was  one of the first pioneers to settle at township No. 4 on the Connecticut River, then the most northwestern English settlement in New England. That township is now called Charlestown, New Hampshire. He arrived there in 1740 from Chelmsford, MA, and in 1744 the village was fortified to protect the settlement during the King George War. Lt. Parker was second-in-command at the fort.
    
    It was a dangerous time to be living in the wilderness, and on April 19, 1746 Lt. Isaac Parker, Capt. John Spafford and Stephen Farnsworth were captured by the Mohawk Indians and carried to Canada, where they were retained for 17 months before being returned to Boston under a flag of truce.  Isaac's son, David Parker was wounded by Indians in an ambush near the fort two months later. UPDATE! See the Stephen Farnsworth captivity story for more information on this event.
    
    Lt. Isaac Parker or his son, Isaac Parker Jr. was captured at Fort #4 by the Indians again, in 1757. According to Nona B. Bruce on page 9 of her The Fort at No. 4, 1740 to 1760, all returned. This quote comes from "The Connecticut River" by Bacon, page 245:
    
    "In the spring of the next year, 1757, a, band of Indians and French soldiers again came upon Charlestown, and at a time when only a handful of men were in the fort. Three groups of settlers out for their day's occupations were attacked. It was the morning of the 19th of April, historic date of after years. One group was going to the mill; another to a maple sugar camp in the woods; the third was on a hunting trip. The men bound for the mill were first waylaid and the mill was burned. Next those at the sugar camp were intercepted, and lastly the hunters. Five were taken off to Canada and sold there as usual. One of them was Deacon Adams of the town church. Only two survived their captivity. These were David Farnsworth, another of the Farnsworth family of first settlers, who escaped, and Thomas Robbins, one of the hunting party. The next summer a band ambushed Asahel Stebbins's house, killed him and captured his wife. With her they also took off Isaac Parker. The same season the lower Valley region about the Massachusetts line was once more raided. At Hinsdale Captain Moore and his son were killed, the rest of his family captured, and their house burned down. These were the last raids into the valley settlements."