William Parry (1754–1819) was a Welsh Congregational minister and tutor.

Life

Parry was born on 25 November 1754 at

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; cy, Y Fenni , archaically ''Abergafenni'' meaning "mouth of the River Gavenny") is a market town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a ''Gateway to Wales''; it is approximately from the border wi ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

, where his father was a deacon of the Baptist congregation. Around 1760 the family moved to London; his father was in the woollen business, and lived in Stepney. On the advice of Samuel Brewer, Parry entered Homerton Academy on 8 February 1774, as a candidate for the Congregational ministry. He was received into the church at Stepney on 29 April 1774, soon afterwards preached with success at

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...

in Kent, and declined an invitation from the church there. In 1780 Parry 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 a

benevolent society The Benevolent Society, founded by Edward Smith Hall in 1813, is Australia's first and oldest charity. The society is an independent, not-for-profit organization whose main goals include helping families, older Australians and people with disabili ...

.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 Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated po ...

in Hertfordshire on 26 October 1789. In 1790 he was active in efforts to obtain the repeal of the Test Act and Corporation Act. In 1795 Parry supported the formation of the Essex Congregational Union. But his congregation fell off, after the emigration to North America of many of its leading members. He then accepted the tutorship of the academy of the Coward Trust, about to be removed in 1799 to Wymondley Academy in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. This post he held for the rest of his life. Parry died on 9 January 1819, after a few weeks' illness, and was buried on 21 January in the ground adjoining the Congregational church at

Hitchin Hitchin () is a market town and unparished area in the North Hertfordshire Districts of England, district in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 35,842. History Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce peopl ...

Works

Parry published three letters to

Lord Aylesford Earl of Aylesford, in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1714 for the lawyer and politician Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Aylesford, Heneage Finch, 1st Baron Guernsey. He had already been created Baron ...

, chairman of a meeting held at Warwick on 2 February 1790 to oppose the removal of the dissenters' disabilities. He continued to publish tracts on religion and politics, until within a few years of his death. His works include: *''Thoughts on such Penal Religious Statutes as affect the Protestant Dissenters'', London, 1791. *''Vindication of Public and Social Worship'', London, 1792 (in answer to Gilbert Wakefield's ''Enquiry into the Expediency and Propriety of Public and Social Worship''). *''An Enquiry into the Nature and Extent of the Inspiration of the Writers of the New Testament'', London, 1797, 1822. *''Strictures on the Origin of Moral Evil'', London, 1808 (in answer to Edward Williams's ''Predestination to Life''.). It was replied to by Rev. Thomas Hill in ''Animadversions on Parry's Strictures'', when Parry retorted in ''Vindication of Strictures on the Origin of Moral Evil'', London, 1808. Seventeen volumes of Parry's lectures in manuscript went to the Historical Library at New College London.

Family

Parry was twice married: # In 1780, to Rachel, daughter of Edward Hickman, minister of Back Street Independent Chapel, Hitchin, from 1758 to 1771; she died in 1791, leaving him with four children; and # In 1793 or 1794, to Susannah, daughter of the Rev. William Lincoln of Bury, who survived him.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Parry, William 1754 births 1819 deaths Dissenting academy tutors Welsh Congregationalists People from Abergavenny