^ 90 Obituary : — JuJin Cowham Parker. 



lay chiefly among those entertaining opinions on these matters corresponding 

 with his own, he was ready to cooperate with all, in measures of pubUc 

 utility or beneficence. 



The qiiahties which we have thus feebly endeavoured to portray were 

 rendered particularly conspicuous to his friends during the latter years of his 

 life, by the manner in which he supported a long continuance of infirm health 

 and considerable bodily suffering, preserving, throughout, the same cheerful- 

 ness and the same interest in public affairs, in the welfare of his friends, and 

 in the progress of scientific knowledge, which had been so prominent features 

 of his character in his days of vigour and health. From the buoyancy of his 

 spirits, the readiness with which he entered into the feelings of tb.e young, 

 and the sanguine views he took of the progress of human improvement, few of 

 his friends, we believe, were aware that JMr. Ellis had, at' the time of his 

 death, reached the sixty-ninth year of his age. 



During the last twenty years of his life, Mr. Ellis had the good fortune to 

 enjoy the domestic society of two female relatives, whose kindred tastes and 

 dispositions rendered his home a source of enjoyment to himself, and en- 

 hanced its attractions to his friends ; and whose unwearied attentions most 

 materiall}' contributed to soothe the sufferings to which his ailments subjected 

 him in his latter years. To the feelings which they, and his other attached 

 relatives and friends, must experience on the present occasion, we can offer 

 no more consolatory reflection than that which is so beautifully expressed in 

 the following language of his own : — 



" There is a redeeming grace in virtuous sorrow, which lightens the gloom 

 of affliction, and disposes the mind to accept with thankfulness the hopes 

 and consolations which religion and reason supply. And as time removes to 

 a greater distance the events which troubled the soul, we look back upon them 

 with less and less emotion, till at length they become so softened to our view, 

 as no longer to agitate our feelings, but awaken only that hallowed remem- 

 brance which sweetly stirs the affections, and purifies and exalts the heart." 

 (^Scotsman, Jan. 27. 1841.) 



On the 28th of January, IS^l, died at Hull, aged 67, John Coivham 

 Parker, Esq., an alderman and eminent merchant of that place, chairman of 

 the Dock Company there, and one of Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace for 

 the East E-iding of Yorkshire, &c. To Mr. Parker, the Hull Botanic 

 Garden, which was opened in 1812, a few years after that of Liverpool, may 

 be said in great measure to have owed its existence; for, though the idea of 

 such an institution at Hull was suggested to him by Mr, Spence, it was in 

 consequence of Mr. Parker's influence and exertions in obtaining subscribers 

 that the garden was set on foot ; and its subsequent prosperity was mainly 

 attributable to the unwearied attention which, in spite of the other urgent 

 calls on his time, he for a long series of years devoted to its financial and 

 scientific interests. No one could well be a more ardent lover of plants, or a 

 more zealous practical horticultiu-ist, than Mr. Parker, or hold forth a more 

 instructive example of how happily these tastes can assimilate with and soothe 

 the cares of a life engaged in weighty public and private duties : and few 

 things could be more exhilarating to one attached to the same pursuits, than 

 to find him, as did his now lamenting old friend who pens these lines, when 

 paying a visit to him at his country house at Hornsea in ISSi, as busily en- 

 gaged in his garden, pruning and planting with his own hands, as if gardening 

 had been the sole occupation of his life. 



Whether as a chief founder of the Botanic Garden, an active and most 

 impartial magistrate, or one of the most warmhearted, generous, and friendly 

 of men, the memory of Mr. Parker will be deservedly cherished in Hull, 

 where his loss to the public will not be easily supplied, and to a numerous 

 deeply grieving family, and a widely extended circle of friends, is irreparable. 

 — W. S. 



