Daniel Parke
British politician (1664-1710)
Colonel Daniel Parke Jr. (1664 – December 7, 1710) was a British military officer, planter, politician and colonial administrator who served as the governor of the Leeward Islands from 1706 to 1710, when he was lynched by a mob in Antigua. Best known for his military service in Europe under the Duke of Marlborough during the War of the Spanish Succession, Parke was the only governor in British America to be murdered.
Born in 1664 in the colony of Virginia into a prominent colonial family, Parke was sent to England at a young age before returning to English North America in 1674. In 1685, he married Jane Ludwell, the daughter of colonial official Philip Ludwell. Parke returned to Virginia after a second stay in England and pursued a career in politics, being elected to the House of Burgesses in 1693 and appointed to sit on the Governor's Council in 1695.
In 1701, he moved to England for a second time and in the next year began serving as an aide-de-camp to Marlborough after the War of the Spanish Succession broke out. After the 1704 Battle of Blenheim, he personally delivered the duke's victory dispatch to Queen Anne. Parke did not receive the governorship of Virginia as he had hoped, and instead was subsequently appointed as the governor of the British Leeward Islands in 1706.
Parke travelled to Antigua in 1706, focusing his efforts on improving colonial fortifications and suppressing smuggling.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Daniel Parke” is british politician (1664-1710). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Daniel, Parke and British, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “british politician (1664-1710)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5218383. VIAF identifies the subject as 1565730. The Library of Congress control number is n88157620. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1664, 1710, 1706 and 1674.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Daniel Parke”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Daniel Parke primary sources, Daniel Parke archive and Daniel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Daniel Parke”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Daniel Parke” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.