Edward Stone Parker was the son of a Printer. He was born in London on 19 May 1802 and baptised on 6 May 1805 by William Huntington (a Calvinistic Methodist preacher) at the Providence Chapel, Titchfield Street, Oxford Market, his parents are recorded as Joseph and Martha Parker. In his early life he was an apprentice printer. He became a Teacher in London at the Methodist Day School in Greater Queen Street and was studying to become a Methodist Minister. He met and married his first wife Mary Cooke Woolmer born 14 Aug 1807 at Fortuneswell, Weymouth, Dorset (the daughter of Revd. Samuel Woolmer and Jane Woolmer (nee Gray). They married at St.Andrews Plymouth on 22 Dec 1828. Her father was a Wesleyan Minister on the Circuit. Edward & Mary had 6 sons in the next 10 years. He was active in the English Anti-slavery movement.

The family came to Australia in 1838 arriving as unassisted passengers on the ship 'Elizabeth'. They arrived in Port Jackson (Sydney) on 24 Sept 1838. He had been appointed by Lord Glenelg, then minister of Colonies as a Protector of Aboriginies. At the time of arrival there were several young children: Edward Stone Parker Jnr aged 9, Joseph Parker aged 6, Samuel Woolmer Parker aged 5, Richard Parker aged 2, Theophilus Henry (named after her brother) aged 1. In their early years in the colony they had another 2 children - William born in 1840 and Emma Mary in 1842 (the ancestor who married a Williamson). Their early life was tough arriving in Victoria with a young family and camping at Jackson's creek in 1839 and 1840.

Edward Stone Parker was the Assistant Protector of Aborigines for the Loddon district of Port Phillip Protectorate from 1839 until it was abolished on 1 Mar 1850.

Mary Cooke Woolmer died on 11 Oct 1842 aged 35 yrs, leaving behind 7 children the youngest, a daughter Emma Mary, being an infant. Their eldest son Edward Stone Parker Jnr died in 1847 aged 18 yrs. Edward Parker married for a second time Hannah Edwards (Annie), a friend of his wife who was employed as a steamtress for the family before his wife's death. The second marriage in 1843 went on the produce a further 6 children: three boys and three girls, although 2 of the girls died in infancy.

Edward Stone Parker became a Victorian Parliamentarian, a Magistrate, a member of the Royal Society of Victoria and a member of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria. When the Aboriginal Station was abolished in 1850 Edward Stone Parker took up a licence for the Reserve (sixty two sq miles). The family established a homestead at the foot of Mount Franklin at Franklinford where his occupation was farming and grazing. In 1860 he was still leasing 10,000 acres for grazing. He died on 29 Apr 1865 aged 62 years.

Joseph Parker gave his recollections of the family's voyage from England to the Castlemaine Assoc of Pioneers & Old residents in 1891 when he was 60 years old.