John Henry Parker was born in 1861 in Braunton, Devon, England,  His father was an Agricultural Labourer who became landlord of the Barnstaple Inn, Braunton by the time John was 10.  He came late into the family born when his mother  Elizabeth was 45, with 15 and 18 year old sisters.

Aged 20 he was training to be a chemist when soon after his father died and around 1882 he emigrated to Montreal, Canada. where he set up his musical instrument busines.  Subsequently he moved to New England at the tunrn of the century.

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