Fabian: thanks.

The Lancashire-based (wife, farm and children) British Guiana-born fellow who went back to sea to get some capital was indeed incarcerated in the South (Savannah GA is probably the place but the 1854 report had it as Charleston SC). That was in the early 1830s and - as was the Southern practice at that time - sailors whose ship's masters did not pay the costs of imprisonment were sold into slavery. The man - John Glasgow - spoke of life in England and influenced a fellow (but US-born) slave who eventually escaped to England. He told the story and the Daily News and the Anti-Slavery Reporter reported it in 1854.

A project I am working on will be dedicated to John Glasgow.

The claims of blacks who said they were escaped American slaves included a number of liars, to the extent that genuine refugees often had to have testimonials supporting their claims in order to be welcomed into British 1840s-1860s abolitionist circles. One many-named liar was Reuben Nixon, also known as Henry Smith, Andrew Barker / Baker, Hiram Swift and William Love. He had been born free but posed as an escaped slave. The exposure of such impostors is a sad aspect of black British history. He was imprisoned in Lewes (Sussex) in 1854 but was still active in Scotland in 1857.

As for Henry Parker, of course the official who filled in the census forms may never have met him, and the "facts" may have been supplied by a neighbour or other innocent in much the same way that actor Ira Aldridge is listed as being born in Africa in the 1841 census. Parker is the first person I have come across who came from Florida. He may have originated in the Bahamas, whose black sailors visiting Southern ports were also put in prison.

Two aspects might escape attention here. One, Nixon gave such a fine public presentation that the audiences were satisfied and donated money so it was not really a swindle; two the willingness of the larger society to aid real and bogus fugitives surely reflects well on the British. 

Thanks

Jeff
========================================
Message Received: Aug 05 2015, 11:29 AM
From: "[log in to unmask]" 
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc: 
Subject: Re: Henry Parker and family, Bristol 1850s onwards

Hi all,

Please do not jump to conclusions. I rememebr an account of a free Black Briton
who as a sailor visited ante-bellumSouth Carolina (I think), where he was
enslaved. Who knows what evidence may arise in the future, so lets keep an open
mind.

all the best

Fabian


> On 05 August 2015 at 09:51 Kathleen Chater  wrote:
> 
> How is he born in Britain but a slave in Florida? I think he was just part
> of the Black community in Bristol, which was of long-standing, and told his
> children and grandchildren some tall stories. No way of proving/disproving
> this now.
> 
> K
> 
> > Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2015 21:15:15 +0200
> > From: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Henry Parker and family, Bristol 1850s onwards
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> >
> > The site sgsts.org.uk on Black Bristolians seems to have used the British
> > census of 1851, 1861 and 1891. The 1851 census indicates he was born in
> > Britain, born around 1826 and working as a stonemason. The 1861 census has
> > his son George as a shoemaker, that of 1891 still a stonemason the family
> > included Thomas. There is no date of death but the site says he was buried
> > in an unmarked grave in Easton. Family legend suggests he had been a slave
> > in Florida.
> >
> > The marriage to Louisa noted by Kathy seems to be his marriage.
> >
> > Perhaps Bristol's wards/parishes (civic divisions) means that the census is
> > not "Bristol" per se?
> >
> > Considering that descendants aided the Bristol sites, there is much
> > confusion.
> >
> > Jeff
> >
> > ========================================
> > Message Received: Aug 04 2015, 04:26 PM
> > From: "Susan Bolton / Jeffrey Green"
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Cc:
> > Subject: Re: Henry Parker and family, Bristol 1850s onwards
> >
> > Yes I had noted that name Codrington and wondered about a Caribbean
> > connection too.
> > The photographs on the Bristol website suggest that all Parker's many
> > daughters were clearly of African descent, and so we have around a dozen
> > "black" families when they married. That's a lot of people.
> > Perhaps someone in Bristol has news?
> >
> > Jeff Green
> >
> >
> > ========================================
> > Message Received: Aug 04 2015, 01:44 PM
> > From: "Kathleen Chater"
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Cc:
> > Subject: Re: Henry Parker and family, Bristol 1850s onwards
> >
> > Was at the National Archives this morning. HP was not (unlike Sarah Remond)
> > naturalized. I tried a lot of variations of the name, birthplace, daughter
> > Emma, in the censuses. I tried all the Parkers born in the US. There were a
> > surprising number, mainly women, but no-one in Bristol with Henry as any of
> > their names. I also simply searched the Emma Parkers in Bristol. I'm
> > starting to wonder where all this info comes from. There's no
> > substantiation or documentation on the Bristol website.
> >
> > A Henry Codrington Parker was married in Bristol in 1854. His wife was
> > either Louisa Handy or Margaret Fraser Perkins and in one of the censuses
> > there is a Henry and Luisa Parker with an eldest daughter Emma, but he says
> > he's born in Bristol.
> >
> > I'm wondering whether we've got someone embellishing his life history.
> > Maybe HP was born in the Caribbean - Codrington seems a very significant
> > name - and decided that being an ex-slave was a lot more exciting. Once
> > he'd told the story he had to stick with it, especially after becoming a
> > lay preacher.
> >
> > The thot plickens.
> >
> > Kathy
> >
> > > Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2015 13:51:11 +0200
> > > From: [log in to unmask]
> > > Subject: Re: Henry Parker and family, Bristol 1850s onwards
> > > To: [log in to unmask]
> > >
> > > Thanks Kathy
> > >
> > > Parker may have taken that name after arriving in England but even so his
> > > absence from the census of 1861 and 1871 seems odd. The Bristol website
> > > does mention his many daughters but does not name them all. It mentions
> > > the grandson killed in France in 1918. The marriage in Clifton registered
> > > in 1876 could have produced Thomas Head who married in 1894 and so the
> > > grandson's birth in 1898 fits.
> > >
> > > I suspect that Parker had two forenames and that he used the second
> > > (Henry) but officials have him under his first (unknown) name.
> > >
> > > Jeff Green
> > >
> > >
> > > ========================================
> > > Message Received: Aug 03 2015, 08:26 AM
> > > From: "Kathleen Chater"
> > > To: [log in to unmask]
> > > Cc:
> > > Subject: Re: Henry Parker and family, Bristol 1850s onwards
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > I've tried to track HP in the censuses. The only Henry Parkers
> > > born in America in the 1861 and 1871 censuses are in London or Liverpool
> > > and there's no possible one in the 1881. I can't find him in Bristol from
> > > the 1861
> > > onwards. This is odd - it's not uncommon to find someone fallen out of
> > > one census but all of them is significant. I wonder if he was
> > > deliberately avoiding official notice, being afraid he'd be taken back to
> > > the US?
> > > But he must have known he was okay here. It may be he moved to Bristol
> > > much later than presumed.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > I also searched the censuses for an Emma Parker, daughter of Henry. The
> > > only likely one I could find is the
> > > daughter of a mason but he was born in Bristol and there were a couple of
> > > older
> > > siblings.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Freebmd
> > > has only one Emma Parker registered in Bristol between 1850 and 1880, in
> > > Clifton in the September 1850 Q. This is very very early to be Henry's
> > > daughter. You would need to get this birth certificate to check. It will
> > > also give Mum's maiden name but of course it won't give colour or
> > > ethnicity so even if the father is a Henry there's no proof it's him, as
> > > the names are so common.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > There are
> > > two possible marriages for an Emma Parker to a James Head. The first is
> > > in Leeds in the Dec 1874 Quarter
> > > but the more likely one is in Clifton in the March 1876 Q. You could get
> > > this cert but it will only give Dad's name. It may give an address.
> > >
> > > Kathy
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2015 15:10:00 +0200
> > > > From: [log in to unmask]
> > > > Subject: Henry Parker and family, Bristol 1850s onwards
> > > > To: [log in to unmask]
> > > >
> > > > Discoveringbristol.org has images and outline details of Henry Parker,
> > > > escaped American slave, and his family which continues to live in the
> > > > Bristol region.
> > > > Has anyone more detailed information?
> > > > It says his eldest daughter Emma married a James Head and they had
> > > > sixteen daughters, and names one of those grand-daughters "Mable" which
> > > > might be a typo for "Mabel". There seems to have been a grandson,
> > > > Thomas Edwin Head who married Caroline West in 1894. Their son Edwin
> > > > Head (born Chertsey 1898) was killed in the First World War in 1918
> > > > aged 20 and is buried in the Pas-de-Calais (the CWGC site names his
> > > > parents and gives their address in Surrey).
> > > > I am unsure of the name of Henry Parker's wife, and his occupation
> > > > (being a lay preacher in Bristol was not a paid role).
> > > >
> > > > Help will be appreciated.
> > > >
> > > > Jeff Green
>