Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/393

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ing on Glass’ in the Paris exhibition of 1867, and on ‘Mosaic and Glass Painting’ in the London exhibition of 1871. In 1887 he published a valuable work, entitled ‘The Ministry of Fine Art.’ He also formed a fine collection of Italian pictures and other works of art at Highnam Court.

In his own parish and neighbourhood Parry was a thoughtful and generous landlord and friend, and took a great interest in county and church affairs. Besides his work at Highnam, he founded and endowed in Gloucester the Free Hospital for Children, the St. Lucy's Home for orphans and for aged and incurable people, and the Gloucester Schools of Science and Art.

He was an accomplished linguist and musician, a great traveller, and a devoted archæologist. He also devoted much attention to landscape-gardening and horticulture at Highnam, and was one of the first to make a collection of pines (or pinetum), some of the varieties of this tree being subsequently called after his name. Parry died suddenly at Highnam on 28 Sept. 1888, being at the time of his death occupied on one of the paintings in St. Andrew's Chapel in Gloucester Cathedral. He was twice married: first, in 1839, to Anna Maria Isabella (d. 1848), daughter of Henry Fynes-Clinton of Welwyn, Hertfordshire; by her he had one daughter and five sons, the youngest and only surviving of whom, Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, director of the Royal College of Music, has attained high eminence as a musical composer. Parry married, secondly, Ethelinda, daughter of Francis Lear, dean of Salisbury, by whom he left two sons and four daughters. A portrait of Parry as a young man, drawn by Mrs. W. H. Carpenter, is in the print-room at the British Museum.

[Private information.]

L. C.

PARRY, WILLIAM (d. 1585), conspirator, was the son of Harry ap David, a gentleman of good family of Northop, Flintshire, and his wife Margaret, daughter of Pyrs or Peter Conway, archdeacon of St. Asaph and rector of Northop (Dwnn, Heraldic Visitations, ii. 326; Le Neve, Fasti, i. 84). Harry ap David is stated by his son to have been of the guard to Henry VIII, to have been appointed to attend on the Princess Mary, and to have died about 1566, aged 108, leaving fourteen children by his first wife and sixteen by his second, Parry's mother.

Parry, or William ap Harry, as he was originally called, was early apprenticed to one Fisher of Chester, who ‘had some small knowledge in law.’ At Chester Parry attended a grammar school, but is said to have made frequent attempts to escape from his master. At last he succeeded, and came to London to seek his fortune. A marriage with a Mrs. Powell, widow, and daughter of Sir William Thomas, brought him some means, and he became attached to the household of William Herbert, first earl of Pembroke [q. v.], whom he served until the earl's death in 1570. Parry then entered the queen's service, receiving some small appointment at court, and soon afterwards made a second fortunate marriage with Catherine, widow of Richard Heywood, an officer in the king's bench. By this marriage, in addition to his own lands in Northop, worth 20l. a year, he became possessed of various manors in Lincolnshire and Woolwich, Kent, which his wife made over to him in spite of the entail devolving them upon Heywood's sons; this led to litigation in 1571 (Proceedings of Privy Council, 1571–5, p. 16; Hasted, Kent, ed. 1886, i. 151 n.)

Parry, however, soon squandered his own and his wife's money, and, probably with a view to avoiding his creditors, sought service as a spy abroad. His chief endeavour was to insinuate himself into the secrets of the English catholic exiles, and to report on their plans to Burghley; with this object he visited Rome, Siena, and other places. In 1577 he was again in England, and frequently appealed to Burghley for a salary, stating that he maintained two nephews at Oxford, a brother, and other relatives. In 1579 he fled precipitately without leave, probably again to avoid his creditors. He wrote to Burghley from Paris excusing his conduct, and Burghley still reposed confidence in him; for when his wife's nephew, Anthony Bacon [q. v.], was going abroad, Burghley strongly recommended Parry to him. The Earl of Essex endeavoured to make capital out of the confidence which Burghley thus appeared to place in Parry, and complained to the queen; but Burghley stated his willingness to be responsible if Bacon's loyalty suffered from his intercourse with Parry (Birch, Memoirs, i. 12, 13). About the same time Parry secretly joined the Roman catholic church.

In 1580 Parry again returned to England, and in November, after renewed proceedings by his creditors, he made a personal assault on Hugh Hare, one of the chief of them, in the Temple; the offence was quite unlike a felony, and the indictment was drawn up in the common form for a burglary. Parry was convicted and sentenced to death, in spite of his protest that he could ‘prove that the Recorder spake with the jury, and the foreman did drink’ (Jardine, Criminal Trials,