Captain John Parker Memorial

A single pyramidical block on a square granite base in Lexington’s Old Burying Ground honors Captain John Parker at the approximate location where his body was buried when he died on September 17, 1775 at 46 years of age.

Described in the 1884 Report of the Lexington Committee on Monuments and Tablets as a, “plain, substantial monument in keeping with the character of the man,” the monument cost $107, exclusive of the foundation, lettering, and gilding.

Parker was born in Lexington on July 13, 1729. A farmer, mechanic, and town officer, he served as the militia captain for the Town of Lexington, placing him at the center of events on April 19, 1775. Parker reportedly told his militia: “Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.” When a shot rang out, from unknown origins, both sides began firing. Eight of Parker’s men, including his cousin Jonas Parker, were killed. Another ten were wounded.

After the British proceeded to Concord, the Lexington militia regrouped along the road the British would take on their way back to Boston. “Parker’s Revenge,” the site where the militia men lay in wait to ambush the British, was located and mapped by National Park Service archaeologists in 2017. The ambush was part of the long string of attacks by colonial militias along what is now referred to as the Battle Road that inflicted heavy casualties, killing 79 British soldiers and wounding 174.

Although there are no known likenesses of him, Henry H. Kitson’s Minute Man Statue, erected in 1900, is said to be modeled after Parker.

The inscription reads:

TO THE
MEMORY
OF
CAPT JOHN PARKER
BORN JULY 13 1729
COMMANDER OF THE MINUTE MEN
APRIL 19 1775
DIED SEPTEMBER 17 1775
THE TOWN ERECTS THIS MEMORIAL
1884