Parry, John Docwra (1823-1823)

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VENN
Adm. pens. at PETERHOUSE, Oct. 15, 1818. Of Bedfordshire. ' Matric. Michs. 1819; B.A. 1824; M.A. 1827. C. of Aspley Guise, Beds., 1827. Of Brighton, in 1833. Author of works on Bedfordshire, Woburn, and the coast of Sussex. The D.N.B. mistakenly gives ‘probably died in 1833.’ The ‘Peel papers’ in the British Museum contain letters from him to Sir Robert Peel, from which it is clear that he was still living in July, 1845, and probably in July, 1846. The following passages are particularly revealing: ‘I place these extracts from The Builder in your hands–merely adding that, as I have really studied the subject, as regards London churchyards, I may yet write much more, with some chance of utility. I will not enlarge on my own distress–merely assuring you that it has lately been great–and that, as I am in great danger at 46 of sinking into premature old age and helplessness, it is really a fit case for sympathy....An M.A. of Cambridge, but not having succeeded in the church [perhaps unfrocked, which would explain his absence from the Clergy List], I have published 5 or 6 works–several topographical ones, one an illustrated collection of ancient poetry [The Legendary Cabinet], the last a work on Brighton and Sussex at the expense of £700, by which I have been ruined....Through this I have been compelled to relinquish the Portsmouth Herald, a paper which at my own risk I turned from a neutral or semi-Whig to an efficacious Conservative one. My family–an ancient one–was connected with the Bedford family.’ His History of Woburn was issued under the patronage of the Duke of Bedford. (G. T. Hales; T. A. Walker, 405; D.N.B.)

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