Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parry, Richard (1722-1780)
PARRY, RICHARD, D.D. (1722–1780), divine, son of Hugh Parry, was born in Bury Street, St. James's, London, in 1722. He was admitted a scholar at Westminster in 1736, and in 1740 was elected a student at Christ Church, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1744, M.A. in 1747, B.D. in 1754, and D.D. in 1757 (Foster, Alumni, 1715–1886). He was appointed rector of Hawkhurst, Kent, by the dean and chapter of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1748. On 7 June 1750 he was made chaplain to Lord Vere, and in 1754 preacher at Market Harborough, Leicestershire. He was subsequently presented by Richard Fleming to the rectory of Witchampton, Dorset (instituted 5 Dec. 1757).
Parry died on 9 April 1780 at Market Harborough, and was buried on the 16th in the church of St. Mary-in-Arden, the mother church of Market Harborough, where there is a flat stone to his memory. He married, on 31 Dec. 1757, Mary Anne, eldest daughter of Admiral Gascoigne; by her he had nine children, of whom five sons and two daughters survived him. Parry was a magistrate for the county of Leicester, and interested himself in local politics.
Besides many theological works, he wrote ‘Strictures upon a thing called “Memoirs of the late contested Election,”’ 1776, in which he vindicated the freeholders of Leicester from aspersions thrown on them in a pamphlet by Dr. Heathcote, 1775. He published, besides single sermons: 1. ‘The substance of Three Sermons preached at Market Harborough,’ Oxford, 1755. 2. ‘The Fig-tree dried up, or the Story of that Remarkable Transaction as it is related by St. Matthew and St. Mark, considered in a new Light, explained, and vindicated,’ Bath, London, and Oxford, 1758. 3. ‘A Defence of the Lord Bishop of London's Interpretation of the famous Text in the Book of Job,’ Northampton, 1760; 2nd edit., corrected and enlarged, Northampton, 1761. 4. ‘Remarks upon a Letter from the Rev. Dr. Kennicott to the Printer of the “General Evening Post,”’ &c., London, 1763. 5. ‘The Case between Gerizim and Ebal fairly stated,’ London, 1764, dedicated to Gregory Sharpe, master of the Temple. 6. ‘A Harmony of the Four Gospels, with a Commentary and Notes,’ London, 1765. 7. ‘An Appeal to Reason concerning a Prosecution in the Archdeacon's Court at Leicester,’ 1765. 8. ‘The Genealogies of Jesus Christ … in Matthew and Luke explained, and the Jewish Objections removed,’ London, 1771. 9. ‘An Attempt to demonstrate the Messiahship of Jesus from the Prophetic History and Chronology of Messiah's Kingdom in Daniel,’ London, 1773.
[Welch's Alumni Westmon. p. 322; Hutchins's Hist. of Dorset, iii. 480, 481; Hasted's Kent, iii. 74; Nichols's Leicestershire, ii. 483, 497, 503, 504; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict.; Gent. Mag. April 1780, p. 203; information from W. B. Bragg, esq., of Market Harborough.]