Modern English biography

PARRY, SIR WILLIAM EDWARD (4 son of Caleb Hillier Parry, physician 1755–1822). _b._ Bath 19 Dec. 1790; entered navy 30 June 1803; commanded the Alexander in Ross’s expedition to the Arctic seas 1818; commanded the Hecla in an expedition to discover the north-west passage 1819–20, reached Melville island, a point which has never been passed; presented with the freedom of city of Bath 24 March 1821, and of Winchester 26 Dec. 1823; F.R.S. 15 Feb. 1821; commanded the Fury in another expedition 1821–3; captain 8 Nov. 1821; acting hydrographer 1 Dec. 1823; commanded the Hecla in a third expedition and wintered at Port Bowen 1824 to 1825; hydrographer to the admiralty 1825–6 and 1827–9; attempted to reach the pole from Spitzbergen by travelling with sledge boats over the ice 1827, reached latitude 82°45´ the farthest northern point attained until 1876; knighted at St. James’s palace 29 April 1829; comr. for the Australian agricultural company May 1829 to 1834; D.C.L. Oxford 1 July 1829; assistant poor law comr. in Norfolk 7 March 1835 to 3 Feb. 1836; controller of the steam-department of navy 19 April 1837 to Dec. 1846; captain superintendent of Haslar hospital 2 Dec. 1846 to 4 June 1852; R.A. 4 June 1852; lieutenant governor of Greenwich hospital 19 Dec. 1853 to death; author of Nautical astronomy by night 1816; Journal of a voyage for the discovery of a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific 1821; Journal of a second voyage for the discovery of a north-west passage 1824–5; Journal of a third voyage for the discovery of a north-west passage 1826; Journal of the first, second, and third voyages, 5 vols. 1828; Narrative of an attempt to reach the North Pole in boats fitted for that purpose and attached to H.M. ship Hecla 1828; Thoughts on the parental character of God 1841, 6 ed. 1878. _d._ Ems 8 July 1855. _bur._ in mausoleum of Greenwich hospital burial-ground 19 July, portrait in museum of royal naval college at Greenwich. _E. Parry’s Memoirs of W. E. Parry_ (1857) _portrait_; _Marshall’s Royal naval biography viii_ 315 (1833); _G.M. ii_ 233–9 (1826); _Proc. of Royal Soc. vii_ 603–12 (1855); _Georgian era iii_ 87–91 (1833). PARSELLE, JOHN. _b._ 1820; educ. Marischall coll. Aberdeen; attended Mr. Rowhill’s Latin class Glasgow gram. sch 1834–9; acted the Chevalier de Bellevue in the Pride of the Market, Lyceum 18 Oct. 1847; at the Adelphi under Madame Celeste’s management 1853 etc.; acting manager Strand theatre, where he also played Mr. Bingley in Craven’s The Post boy 31 Oct. 1860, Max Altman in Wooller’s Silver wedding 24 Jany. 1861, Lieut. Hilliard in Troughton’s Unlimited confidence 1 Feb. 1864, Edward Hartwright in his own comedietta Cross purposes 27 March 1865; wrote My son’s a daughter, produced Strand theatre 15 Sept. 1862; stage manager for Fanny Joseph at Holborn theatre 13 April 1868; at the Globe acted in Craven’s Philomel 10 Feb. 1870; went to America with Charles Wyndham’s company in 1873; connected with the management of A. M. Palmer’s Union square theatre, New York 1873 to death. _d._ New York 17 Feb. 1885. _bur._ Evergreen cemetery. _Entr’acte Annual_ (1882) 58 _portrait_; _Scott and Howard’s E. L. Blanchard_ (1891) 105, 720. PARSONS, BENJAMIN (son of Thomas Parsons, yeoman). _b._ Nibley, Gloucs. 16 Feb. 1797; apprenticed to a tailor at Frampton-on-Severn 7 years; studied at Cheshunt college 1821–5; congregational minister at Ebley, near Stroud Aug. 1826 to death; started a provident fund 1832 and a day-school 1840; has been called the Oberlin of Gloucestershire; author of Why have you become a Pædobaptist, a dialogue between Hezekiah Hastie, a baptist, and Simon Searche, a pædobaptist. By John Bull, Stroud 1835; Anti-Bacchus 1840, 11th thousand 1843; The wine question settled 1841; The mental and moral dignity of woman 1842; Tracts for fustian jackets and smock frocks, No. 1–18, 1848. _d._ at the Chapel house, Ebley 10 Jany. 1855. _E. P. Hood’s The Earnest minister, the life of Benjamin Parsons_ (1856) _portrait_; _The lamps of the temple_, _3 ed._ (1856) 520–41; _S. Couling’s History of the temperance movement_ (1862) 339–40. PARSONS, DANIEL (son of John Parsons, vicar of Sherborne, Dorset). _b._ 1811; educ. Oriel coll. Oxf., B.A. 1832, M.A. 1835; C. of Marden, Wilts.; C. of St. James’, Langton, Staffs. 1841–3; joined the church of Rome 1843; resigned his Anglican orders under Clerical disabilities relief act 22 Sept. 1870; edited The diary of sir H. Slingsby 1836; author of Plain parochial sermons 1838; a contributor to Notes and Queries. _d._ Stuart’s lodge, Malvern wells 5 July 1887. PARSONS, ELIZABETH (dau. of W. Rooker of Tavistock, Devon, congregational minister). _b._ Tavistock 5 June 1812; conducted a class for young people in her father’s chapel 1840–4, for whom she wrote hymns, 18 of which were printed by one of her pupils under the title of Willing class hymns, three have become popular, Saviour round thy footstool bending, Jesus we love to meet, and O happy land! O happy land!; also wrote a few hymns for adults; _m._ 1844 T. Edgcumbe Parsons; she _d._ Plymouth