This Saturday is the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
As part of the celebration, the Nerds will participate in the Battle of Lexington reenactment. At the event, we will represent Jonas Parker, one of the eight Massachusetts men killed at the engagement.
This is his story.
Jonas Parker’s ties to Colonial Massachusetts can be traced back to his ancestor, Thomas Parker, who departed from London, England, on March 11, 1635. Upon arrival in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Thomas initially settled in Lynn. His family later established residence in Reading. On August 3, 1664, Jonas’ grandfather, John Parker, was born. John married twice: first to Deliverance Dodge of Beverly, and second to a woman known only as “Sarah.” The first marriage produced eight children, including Jonas’ father, Andrew. All of the children were born in Reading. The second marriage produced no children.
On June 25, 1712, John Parker purchased land in the southern part of Cambridge Farms (future Lexington) from John Cutler. The property was described as “one small Mansion house and about sixty Acres of Land more or less, and is bounded - Southerly upon sd Watertown Line.” He and his family subsequently settled on the property.
John Parker and his son Andrew served as the town’s “fence viewers” and constables. It appears that in the early 18th Century, the family was considered prominent, as the Parkers occupied the second row of pews in the town meeting house.
On August 2, 1720, Jonas’ father married Sarah Whitney, the daughter of Isaiah and Sarah Whitney. Jonas Parker and his twin sister Sarah were born in Lexington on February 6, 1721. The twins were the oldest of twelve children. In total, he had seven sisters and four brothers. On June 30, 1745, the Parker and Munroe families united when Jonas married Lucy Munroe. At the time of the wedding, Lucy was already pregnant with their first child.
Their daughter, Lucy, was born on October 9, 1745. Sadly, she was born “deaf and dumb”. By 1761, Jonas and Lucy had nine more children. Four were boys, and the remaining five were girls. In 1775, the oldest child was thirty years old, and the youngest, Mary, was fourteen.
According to the Reverend Theodore Parker’s 19th-century genealogical account of the Parker families of Lexington, Jonas and Lucy “removed to Holden, where he purchased a farm and saw-mill, but returned to Lexington after a few years.”
Primary and secondary sources indicate Jonas and his family, upon return, resided on Bedford Road north of the Lexington Common and immediately next door to the Reverend Jonas Clarke. A review of Jonas’ estate inventory supports that he was both a woodworker and a yeoman by trade. Some of the tools and materials owned by him on the eve of the Battle of Lexington included “Ruff timber in the shop, 5 hubs and spokes for woollen wheels, Timber for foot wheels, turned timber for wheels, 54 feet of joyce, 2 new screws, 2 lathes, New beadstead, Screw bench [and] wooden vice.” Parker appears also to be an avid reader as he owned a “Psalm book, old bible [and a] number of other books.” Jonas was described as a tall, muscular man, much like his younger brother, Amos. He was considered the best wrestler in the town.
Unfortunately for Jonas, his financial status in Lexington was significantly lower than that of his father and grandfather. Although Parker was not poor, he was not wealthy either. A review of Lexington’s tax valuations of 1774 reveals Jonas’ personal and real property was taxed at a rate of two shillings, eleven pence. By comparison, the wealthiest resident of Lexington, William Reed, Esq., was assessed 16 shillings, one pence. The town’s poorest resident, Ephraim Winship, was assessed a mere ten pence. Parker owned one house, at least twelve acres of land, three cows, and two pigs. His farm produced approximately one ton of “fresh meadow hay” and one ton of “English hay” per year.
Although there are no records of Jonas Parker serving at the Siege of Louisbourg or the French and Indian Wars, he was undoubtedly a member of the town’s militia company and was likely assigned to the alarm list.
Despite popular belief, Lexington’s militia was not known in 1775 as the “Lexington Minute Men.” Instead, the militia company either retained its Puritan title and was known as the “Lexington Training Band” or was called “Captain John Parker’s Company.” Period documents from the town suggest that the unit was officially known as the “Training Band,” and its soldiers were referred to as “training soldiers.” However, depositions from Lexington militiamen in the aftermath of the Battle of Lexington refer to their town militia not as the Lexington Training Band but as “Captain Parker’s Company.” It is possible that both unit designations were used interchangeably.
The organization consisted of one hundred and thirty men, four officers, seven non-commissioned officers, one clerk, one fifer, and one drummer. Six of the town’s families furnished a total of twenty-nine. The oldest militiaman was sixty-three, while the youngest was a mere fourteen. Fifty-five men were over the age of thirty, and only twenty-eight had seen combat during the two previous French wars. At the Battle of Lexington, Jonas held the rank of private.
By 1775, Parker, like many of his neighbors, believed war with the Crown was inevitable. As Hugh Earle Percy correctly noted, “things here are now drawing to a crisis every day. The people here openly oppose the New Acts. They have taken up arms in almost every part of this Province, & have drove in the Gov’t & most of the Council . . . A few days ago, they mustered about 7,000 men at Worcester . . . In short, this country is now in an open state of rebellion.” In the days leading up to the Battle of Lexington, Parker openly expressed his intent to fight if hostilities broke out. According to Elijah Sanderson, “some days before the Battle, I was conversing with Jonas Parker, who was killed, and heard him express his determination never to run from before the British troops.”
Based on town records and Parker’s estate inventory, he played a significant role in the community’s preparation for war. After Lexington purchased an iron cannon from Watertown in late 1774, he helped construct the carriage upon which the gun would be mounted. He was also responsible for cutting back the wood stocks of the fowling pieces of his fellow militiamen so socket bayonets could be slid over the barrels of their guns.
Given Jonas Parker’s proximity to the Lexington Common and the Reverend Clarke’s residence, he likely assembled with other elements of the town militia company after Paul Revere arrived in Lexington. As the Reverend Clarke recalled, “upon this timely intelligence, the militia of this town were alarmed, and ordered to meet on the usual place of parade.” According to Daniel Harrington, “the train band or Militia, and the alarm men (consisting of the aged and others exempted from turning out, excepting upon alarm) repaired in general to the common, close in with the meeting-house, the usual place of parade; and there were present when the roll was called over about one hundred and thirty of both.”
As they gathered on the town common, Jonas’ cousin, Captain John Parker, addressed his men to “consult what might be done for our own and the people's safety; and also, to be ready for whatever service Providence might call us out to upon this alarming occasion, in case--just in case--overt acts of violence or open hostilities should be committed by this mercenary band of armed and blood-thirsty oppressors.” After some discussion, it was decided to confirm the accuracy of Revere’s message by sending scouts eastward to locate and observe the movements of the British regulars. “Two persons were sent, express, to Cambridge, if possible to gain intelligence of the motions of the troops and what route they took. The militia met, according to order, and waited the return of the messengers that they might order their measures as occasion should require.” Whether Jonas remained at Buckman Tavern or returned home after the company was dismissed is unknown.
Jonas Parker was present when the Training Band was reassembled hours later for the Battle of Lexington. Also on the Common with him was his son Jonas, Jr., his first cousins Captain John and Thaddeus Parker, and his nephew Ebenezer Parker. Other relatives in the ranks included Ensign Robert Munroe, Samuel Munroe, Jedediah Munroe, John Munroe, Stephen Munroe, Stephen Munroe Jr., Ebenezer Munroe, Nathan Munroe, Edmund Munroe, and Sergeant William Munroe.
According to Jonas’ son, “on the Morning of the Nineteenth of April Instant, about one or two o’clock, being informed, that a Number of Regular Officers had been Riding up and down the Road the evening and night preceding, and that some of the Inhabitants, as they were passing, had been Insulted by the Officers, and stopped by them; and being also Informed, that the Regular Troops were on their March from Boston, in order (as it was said) to take the Colony Stores, then Deposited at Concord, we met on the Parade of our Company in this town; After the Company had Collected, we were Ordered, by Captain Parker, (who Commanded us) to Disperse for the Present, and to be Ready to attend the beat of the Drum, and Accordingly the Company went into houses near the place of Parade. We further Testify and Say, that, about five o'Clock in the morning, we attended the beat of our Drum, and were formed on the Parade; we were faced towards the Regulars then marching up to us, and some of our Company were comeing to the parade with their backs towards the Troops, and Others on the parade, began to Disperse when the Regulars fired on the Company, before a Gun was fired by any of our company on them. They killed eight of our company, and wounded several, and continued their fire, until we had all made our escape.”
True to his earlier pledge to Elijah Sanderson, Jonas Parker stood his ground when hostilities erupted on the Lexington Common. After the British light infantry opened fire, they “made a huzza” and ran furiously towards the retiring militia. As the soldiers surged forward, Ebenezer Munroe remembered Jonas Parker “standing … with his balls and flints in his hat, on the ground between his feet, and heard him declare he would never run. He was shot down at the second fire . . . I saw him struggling on the ground, attempting to load his gun . . .As he lay on the ground, they [ran] him through with the bayonet.”
According to a petition for financial compensation submitted by Lucy Parker a year after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, British soldiers pillaged the dead, including her husband, stealing their muskets, cartridge boxes, bayonets, and other arms and equipment that they had carried during their earlier muster morning.
As the regulars left the onslaught behind, wives, children, and spectators emerged from hiding and made their way to the common. Many were overwhelmed with emotion and grief at the sight of husbands, sons, brothers, cousins, and neighbors lying dead or wounded on the field. As they began to tend to the wounded, over two hundred men from Woburn’s militia and minuteman companies arrived in Lexington. Disturbed at what they saw, the men halted and assisted the Lexington residents in treating the wounded and carrying the dead into the meetinghouse. Afterward, the Woburn men reassembled and resumed their march toward Concord.
The Reverend Clarke’s daughter, Elizabeth, described the original burial of Jonas Parker and the seven other men killed at the Battle of Lexington. “Father sent [us] down to Grandfather Cook's to see who was killed and what their condition was, and, in the afternoon, Father, Mother, with me and the baby went to the Meeting House. There was the eight men that was killed, seven of them my Father's parishioners, one from Woburn, all in Boxes made of four large boards nailed up and, after Pa had prayed, they were put into two horse carts and took into the grave yard where some of the neighbors had made a large trench, as near the woods as possible and there we followed the bodies of those first slain, Father, Mother, I and the baby, there I stood and there I saw them let down into the ground, it was a little rainy but we waited to see them covered up with clods and then for fear the British should find them, my Father thought some of the men had best cut some pine or oak bows and spread them on their place of burial so that it looked like a heap of brush.”
Following Jonas’s death, the remaining members of the Parker family, who lived in Lexington, struggled to remain intact. It is possible that Jonas’ wife could not care for Lucy and the two youngest Parker girls, Elizabeth and Mary. Guardians were appointed to look after the three young women. Lucy and Elizabeth departed Lexington to live with their guardians in Princeton (MA) and Billerica. Dr. Joseph Fiske was appointed as Mary's guardian. She stayed in Lexington until her marriage in 1782.
What happened to Jonas’s wife after 1778 remains a mystery. Unfortunately, she has entirely vanished from all town and regional records.
Due to the Battle of Lexington's negative impact on the family, Jonas’s estate was not probated in the Middlesex Courts until 1788. A partial review of his estate reveals the following items and their respective value:
Ruff timber in the shop, kitchen chamber 0 4 7 0
small sugar box, 2 great buttery, toster 0 2 0 0
5 hubs and spokes for woollen wheels 0 4 7 3
Timber for foot wheels, part wrought 0 10 4 3
turned timber for wheels, foot wheel __?__ 0 14 8 0
54 feet of joyce, 2 new screws in the shop 0 7 8 3
New beadstead in the shop ___?___ 0 7 0 0
Blue great coat, blue strait bodied coat 2 15 4 0
Camblet coat, pair of knit breeches l 3 4 0
Green jacket, white jacket, dark sustion coat 0 9 2 0
Gray wooling coat, stript lining, wooll jacket 0 7 4 0
Leather breeches, fine shirt 0 10 0 0
Silk handkerchief, lowered pocket handkerchief 0 3 0 1
Cheked handkerchief, bewer hat, wigglet 0 12 4 0
Pr calf skin shoes 0 7 4 0
Blue tow stockings, blue grey stockings 0 3 8 0
Pr of leggings, read cap, pr of new gloves 0 3 0 1
Yearling calf, burrow, a sow 3 8 0 0
2 woollen spinning wheels, foot wheel 0 16 8 0
5 earthen plates and 2 earthen bowls 0 1 4 3
Psalm book, old bible, number of other books 0 2 7 3
Small hollow plain, 2 lathes 0 9 8 0
Screw bench, wooden vice 0 7 10 l
Barrel tub, 2 washing tubs 0 2 1 2
On the 60th Anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, Jonas Parker and the other seven men killed at the engagement were removed from the town’s burial ground and reinterred in a ceremonial vault located underneath the oldest monument on the Lexington Common. During the ceremony, the famed statesman Edward Everett highlighted the sacrifice and courage of Jonas Parker. At the height of his speech, he simply declared, “History, — Roman history, — does not furnish an example of bravery that out shines that of Jonas Parker. A truer heart did not bleed at Thermopylae.”