in May 1716, presented him to the vicarage of Finglass, in the diocese of Dublin, worth 400l. a-year. "Such notice," says Dr. Johnson, "from such a man, inclines me to believe, that the vice of which he has been accused was not gross, or not notorious." But he enjoyed these preferments little more than a year; for in July 1717, he died at Chester, on his way to Ireland, in his thirty-eighth year. Dying without male issue, his estate, but considerably embarrassed by his imprudence, devolved to his nephew, Sir John Parnell, Bart, one of the justices of the King's Bench in Ireland, and father to the Irish chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Parnell, who died in 1801.
A collection of his poems was published in 1721, by Pope, with an elegant epistle to the Earl of Oxford. "His praise," says Dr. Johnson, "must be derived from the easy sweetness of his diction; in his verses there is more happiness than pains: he is sprightly without effort, and always delights, though he never ravishes: every thing is proper, yet every thing seems casual."
RICHARD PARR,
A divine of some eminence in his day, was the son of Richard Parr, who was also a divine, and was born at Fermoy, in the county of Cork, in 1617; and this singularity is recorded of his birth, that his mother was then fifty-five years of age. He was educated at a grammar school under some Roman Catholic priests; and, in 1635, he quitted his native country for England, and entered as a servitor of Exeter college, Oxford, where his merit procured him the patronage of Dr. Prideaux the rector, by whose interest, as soon as he had taken his bachelor's degree in arts, in 1641, he was chosen chaplain fellow of the college. Archbishop Usher, retiring to this college in 1643, to avoid the tumults in Ireland, observed the talents of Mr. Parr, made him his chaplain, and towards the close of that year, took him with him to Glamorgan shire. On his return with this prelate, he obtained the
