Background
Parry was the son of Sir Edward Parry, Arctic explorer, and Isabella Louisa, his wife, fourth daughter of the first Lord Stanley of Alderley.
Parry was the son of Sir Edward Parry, Arctic explorer, and Isabella Louisa, his wife, fourth daughter of the first Lord Stanley of Alderley.
Parry was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford and began his ordained ministry as a curate in Norham.
After time as chaplain to the Bishop of London, Archibald Campbell Tait, he became Rural Dean of Ealing. In 1869 he was appointed Archdeacon of Canterbury and in 1870 became the fourth suffragan Bishop of Dover, 273 years after the death of the third bishop. A monument to him is in Canterbury Cathedral.
In 1882 he was chosen by the Australian bishops to succeed the late Bishop Barker as Bishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of Australia, but he declined the nomination.
Parry"s sons, Edward and Sir Sydney were, respectively, Bishop of Guyana (1900–1921) & Archbishop of the West Indies (1917–1921) and a senior British civil servant. Sir Sydney wrote the article about his father in the Dictionary of National Biography.