Another crime of huge magnitude was the seduction of Mrs. Chester, the wife of Edward Chester, Esq., one of the most opulent of the Antiguan merchants, and a member of the house of assembly. Not content with injuring this gentleman in the deepest manner by thus robbing him of the affections of his wife, Colonel Parke, in his office of governor, proceeded to offer Mr. Chester every insult which a little mind was capable of. Upon one occasion, the governor had all his cocoa and other merchandise seized, on an unfounded suspicion of its being illegally gained; and then, supposing that all these several aggravations would cause him to be justly disliked, he (Colonel Parke) accused Mr. Chester of joining with other disaffected parties, in endeavours against his government; and, upon the plea of doing it for the establishment of the public peace, he broke into Mr. Chester’s house one evening, when that gentleman was entertaining a few of his friends, who were obnoxious to the governor—and, by the assistance of some of his armed sycophants, among whom was the provost-marshal, dragged Mr. Chester and his friends to prison. In order to give some face to his proceedings, Colonel Parke accused other gentlemen of joining in this pretended insurrection, and, accordingly, he sent some of his brutal partisans to an estate called “Denbows,” with orders to take into custody Mr. Ffrye and Mr. Cockran, (members of the assembly,) and bring them to town to stand their trial upon that charge. While the magistrates were taking depositions in this case, Sergeant Bowes, a creature of the governor, beat Captain Kallabane (one of the witnesses for the defendant) in the open court. For this offence the sergeant was broke by his colonel, and ordered to be whipped; but when this circumstance came to the ears of the governor, he immediately restored Bowes to his rank of sergeant, and protected him from all further punishment. Another source of dissatisfaction, upon the part of the assembly, arose from the circumstance of the governor taking the soldiers off duty to watch his private property. The following extract, taken from a message addressed to his excellency from the members of the house of assembly, relates to this subject:—“We always conceived her Majesty’s troops were sent to do duty on our _standing guards_, and not to be altogether employed in guarding your excellency’s person, your several buildings, your lumber, your heaps of bricks, mortar, and pantiles.” It must not be supposed that these were the only complaints alleged against Colonel Parke. His whole conduct, both in public and private life, was arbitrary in the extreme; and so supercilious was his treatment of the magnates of the island, that before he had held the government for twelve months, articles of impeachment were prepared to be forwarded to England.