PARRY, JOSHUA (1719 - 1776), Nonconformist minister, and writer

Born 17 June 1719 at Llan-gan, Pembrokeshire, of a family that had once been well-to-do, but the father was one of twenty-one children. Parry was educated at Haverfordwest under Evan Davies (1694? - 1770), but before Davies opened the Academy there; he was afterwards at Moorfields under John Eames. He became pastor at Midhurst (1741-2), and then at Cirencester, where he died 6 September 1776. He was a literary (and a social) figure, rather than a theologian, and Edmund Jones in 1770 speaks slightingly of him. He is noticed in D.N.B., in an article based mainly on the Memoir (1872) written by his grandson Charles Henry Parry.

Joshua Parry had notable descendants. His eldest son, CALEB HILLIER PARRY (1755 - 1822), was a physician of great repute at Bath [he is repeatedly mentioned in Jane Austen's letters]. Caleb was a distinguished physician on account of his work on angina, and on exophthalmic goitre (of which he provided the first description). He was a great friend of Edward Jenner.

The physician's son, Sir WILLIAM EDWARD PARRY (1790 - 1855), F.R.S., and rear-admiral, was a very famous Arctic explorer; and the admiral's son, EDWARD PARRY (1830 - 1890), became bishop-suffragan of Dover. The D.N.B. has articles on all three.

Authors

• Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)
• Emyr Wyn Jones, (1907 - 1999)

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/