Lady Marianne Parker later Bruce (née Dallas)

Counterclaimed unsuccessfully for the compensation for 10 enslaved people on Antigua as guardian of her son Sir Peter Parker, deceased. The compensation was awarded to her sister Henrietta Dallas.

1. Daughter of Sir George Dallas 1st bart. (son of Robert Dallas of Middlesex and brother of Sir Robert Dallas the chief justice of the common pleas), sister of Henrietta Dallas and Robert Charles Dallas (each of whom q.v.).

2. The will of Sir Peter Parker the son [3rd bart.] was proved 03/04/1835; that of Sir Peter Parker the father [2nd bart.] was proved 01/12/1814.

3. Letters and account books of Lady Parker, her father and her children are part of the Bruce family papers at the Bodleian Library. Her second husband Michael Bruce (1787-1861) was briefly MP for Ilchester, 1830-1831.

4. Lady Marianne Parker's husband, Sir Peter Parker 2nd bart., first cousin of Lord Byron, is in the ODNB as 'naval officer' (as is his grandfather Sir Peter Parker 1st bart. 1721-1811).

T71/1223 Henrietta Dallas of No. 18 Henrietta St. Cavendish Sq counterclaimed against Lady Parker, guardian of her [late] son Sir Peter Parker bart., Henrietta Dallas claiming as legatee under will of Sir Peter Parker bart. 11/1/1833. A 'Statement in support of counterclaim of Miss Henrietta Dallas' [n.d.] explained that the Slaves had been registered in name of Lady Parker as guardian in 1821 when Sir Peter Parker was a minor. Henrietta Dallas was a daughter of Sir George Dallas (as was Lady Parker); if Henrietta Dallas died, the legatee was (Sir) Robert Charles Dallas.

1. Debrett's Baronetage ([5th ed.], London, J. G. & F. Rivington, 1824) Vol. 2 p. 959 'Dallas of Petsall'.

2. PROB 11/1846; PROB 11/1563.

3. Catalogue of the papers of the Bruce Family, 18th-20th century, http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/1500-1900/bruce/bruce.html [accessed 09/09/2013]. http://www.histparl.ac.uk/volume/1820-1832/member/bruce-michael-1787-1861 [accessed 09/09/2013]. The death-date of 1851 for Marianne Bruce formerly Parker nee Dallas is taken from the finding aid for the Bruce Papers.

4. J. K. Laughton, ‘Parker, Sir Peter, second baronet (1785–1814)’, rev. Andrew Lambert, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21330, accessed 29 Jan 2014]