After being admitted to the bar, he practiced in Westmoreland, his native county, which he twice represented in the Virginia House of Delegates, although when he was re-elected the vote contested, and the narrow loser would succeed to the seat in the next election.

Parker would resigned from the Senate on March 13, 1837, to accept a seat on the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals (again elected by his former state legislative colleagues).

He refused the cabinet office of United States Attorney General offered him by President Van Buren.

[3] Parker died on his estate, ‘Soldier’s Retreat,’ near Snickersville (now Bluemont, Clarke County), Virginia, September 10, 1840.

He was buried alongside his wife, Elizabeth Foushee Parker at Grace Episcopal Church in Berryville, Virginia in the county of Clarke.