‘Pilgrimes,’ and was reprinted by J. Payne Collier in his ‘Illustrations of Early English Popular Literature,’ 1864. On it was based ‘The Travailes of the three English Brothers,’ Thomas, Anthony, and Robert Shirley, a play, by John Day, William Rowley, and George Wilkins, 1607.
[Parry's Discourse. Other narratives of the same events, though without direct mention of Parry, are Shirley's own account of his Travels in Persia, 1613, and the Travels of the Three Brothers Shirley, 1825, containing reprints from all the narratives.]
PARRY, WILLIAM (1687–1756?), caligrapher and numismatist, son of Devereux Parry, plebeius, of the city of Hereford, matriculated from Jesus College, Oxford, on 19 Feb. 1705–6, and graduated B.A. in 1709, M.A. in 1712, and B.D. in 1719 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714, iii. 1122). He was elected to a fellowship in his college, and on 27 Sept. 1712 was appointed rector of Tellisford, Somerset (Weaver, Somerset Incumbents, p. 198). In 1739 he was presented to the vicarage of Shipston-on-Stour, which is in a detached part of Worcestershire, enclosed in Warwickshire. He probably died about 1756.
He was famous for caligraphy, and wrote an elegant hand, resembling the italic print. Some of his manuscripts are so neatly written that they might easily be mistaken for well-executed typography. Several specimens of his caligraphic skill are extant in the Bodleian Library, and a beautiful transcript which he made of the statutes of his college is preserved among its archives. An account of a collection of his letters, filling a volume of about two hundred pages, was communicated by John Greswell to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ (June 1807, p. 502). In these Parry frequently mentions a work on which he was actively engaged, viz. ‘Index Nummorum; or a Collection of the Names and the Value of all Sorts of Coins, antient and modern, arranged in alphabetical order.’ Many of his poetical trifles appeared in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine.’
[Letters written by Eminent Persons (1813), ii. 133; Macray's Cat. of the Rawlinson MSS. p. 857.]
PARRY, WILLIAM (1742?–1791), portrait-painter, son of John Parry (d. 1782) [q. v.], the blind harpist, was born about 1742. He studied in Shipley's school and the Duke of Richmond's gallery, and gained several Society of Arts premiums for drawing from the antique and the life. Later he joined the St. Martin's Lane Academy, and became a pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds; at that time he was a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, and contributed to its exhibitions in 1766 and the two following years. On leaving Reynolds, Parry, having become a protégé of Sir Watkin W. Wynne, went to practise near Wynnstay, and in 1770 was provided by his patron with the means to visit Italy; he studied for some years in Rome, where he made a copy of Raphael's ‘Transfiguration’ for Sir Watkin, and returned in 1775. He then settled for a time in London, and in 1776 was elected an associate of the Royal Academy; from that year to 1779 he was an exhibitor at the Academy, chiefly of small whole-length portraits, including one of his blind father playing draughts; but, meeting with little success, he again retired to Wales. In 1779 Parry lost his wife, a daughter of Henry Keene, the architect, and, according to Edwards, soon after departed for Rome, and remained there until the end of his life; but there must be some inaccuracy in this statement, as in 1787 and 1788 he was again an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, his address being in the Haymarket, London. His last few years, however, were certainly passed in Rome, where he obtained some employment, until the state of his health compelled him to return to England; he died immediately after his arrival, on 13 Feb. 1791. Parry etched a small profile portrait of his father as an admission ticket for his benefit concert.
[Edwards's Anecdotes of Painting; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Williams's Eminent Welshmen.]
PARRY, WILLIAM (1754–1819), congregational minister and tutor, was born on 25 Nov. 1754 at Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, where his father was a deacon of the baptist congregation. About 1760 the family removed to London; his father engaged in the woollen business, and resided at Stepney. On the advice of the minister of the congregational church at Stepney, Samuel Brewer, William entered the academy at Homerton, as a candidate for the ministry, on 8 Feb. 1774. He was received into the church at Stepney on 29 April 1774; soon afterwards preached with success at Gravesend in Kent, and declined an invitation from the church there. In 1780 he finished his course, left Homerton, and was ordained to the ministry at Little Baddow in Essex. While there he kept a school, and helped to organise the ‘Benevolent Society for the Relief of Necessitous Widows and Children of Protestant Dissenting Ministers in the Counties of Essex and Herts,’ established at Bishop's Stortford
