Judge Richard Parker papers

Scope and Contents note

Legal and family papers, diary (1869), a bank book, and ca. 70 receipts. Topics include slavery, Parker's service in the U.S. House of Representatives, his work as a lawyer and judge, his sentencing of John Brown at Charles Town in 1859, and his support for the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Includes a manuscript map of Major Thomas Parker's land along the Shenandoah River (1796); prayers; records of slave transactions, a pass through the Confederate lines, which Capt. Davis refused to honor (1864) with consequent correspondence with General Imboden; Judge Parker's charges to the Grand Jury dating before and after the Civil War; Judge Parker's note on the fairness of the trial of John Brown (1889); and General Marcus Wright's "Trial of John Brown."