Parr, Samuel (1769-1825)

Comments

venn
Adm. sizar (age 18) at EMMANUEL, June 6, 1765. S. of Samuel, surgeon [of Harrow] (and Ann, dau. of Leonard Mignard, one of a family of French Protestants who came to England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes). B. Jan. 15, 1746-7, at Harrow. School, Harrow. ' Matric. Michs. 1765. Forced by his step-mother to leave Cambridge on his father's death in 1766. M.A., per Lit. Reg., 1772; LL.D. 1781. Adm. at St John's, Apr. 10, 1784. Ord. deacon (London) Dec. 24, 1769; priest (London) Mar. 15, 1778; C. of Willesden with Kingsbury, Middlesex, 1769. Assistant Master at Harrow, 1767-71. After failing as a candidate for the Headmastership of Harrow, then vacant, became Head Master of a school (started by himself) at Stanmore, 1771-6, where he made Greek a chief subject of study. Head Master of Colchester Grammar School, 1776-9; of Norwich Grammar School, 1779-85. ‘He flogged after the old fashion.’ C. of Holy Trinity, Colchester, 1778-9. C. of St George's Colegate and St Saviour's, Norwich, 1779. R. of Asterby, Lincs., 1780-3. P.C. of Hatton, Warws., 1783-1825. R. of Wadenhoe, Northants., 1792-1825. R. of Graffham, Hunts., 1802-25. Preb. of St Paul's, 1783-1825. Married (1) Nov. 1771, Jane, only dau. of Zachariah Masingale, of Carleton, Yorks., and had issue. The marriage is said to have produced little ‘connubial felicity,’ his wife having a very caustic tongue and delighting in ‘exposing her husband's foibles and ridiculing his peculiarities in the presence of others. He was kept in a constant state of irritation.’ Porson, who visited him at Hatton, said, ‘Parr would have been a great man but for 3 things–his trade, his wife, and his politics.’ His wife's opinion of him was that ‘he was born in a whirlwind and bred a tyrant’; she died in 1810. Married (2) Dec. 1816, Mary, dau. of John Eyre (1802), of Coventry. Author, Characters of Fox; Sermons; Latin Epitaphs; Memoirs; etc. His collected works were published in 1828. A fine Latin scholar and a great Whig. Died Mar. 6, 1825, at Hatton, where he had lived for many years, taking pupils. (St John's Coll. Adm., IV. 412; D.N.B., which gives ‘B. Jan. 26’; Gunning's Reminiscences, II. 196-9; H. W. Saunders; F. P. White.)

Evidence