John Parker (1803–1867) was an English whaling master. He was based at Hull for most of his life, and was one of the most successful and intrepid Arctic whalers to sail from that port in the 19th century. The products of the whaling trade such as oil and whalebone (baleen) were essential to the British economy during this period of the Industrial Revolution and the rigours of life on board a whaleship in the Greenland fisheries produced a particularly hardy and efficient breed of sailor.