Albion Keith Parris was born on January 19, 1788 in Hebron, Oxford County, Maine, United States. He was the only child of Samuel and Sarah (Pratt) Parris. His father was an one time judge of the court of common pleas for Oxford County, was one of the first settlers. His ancestor, Thomas Parris, the son of a dissenting minister near Plymouth, England, emigrated to Long Island and later removed to Pembroke, Massachussets. Albion's boyhood was spent on his father's farm.
Albion Keith Parris entered Dartmouth College in 1803 with advanced standing, was graduated in 1806, and immediately commenced the study of law with Ezekiel Whitman of New Gloucester.
Albion Keith Parris was admitted to the Cumberland bar on September 1809 and started practice in Paris. After entering politics in 1811 as attorney for Oxford County, he represented Paris in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1813-14 and Oxford and Somerset counties in the Massachusetts Senate of 1814 - 1815. On November of that year he was elected a representative in the Fourteenth Congress and reëlected in 1816, serving until February 3, 1818, when he resigned to accept appointment as judge of the federal district court for Maine. He was active in the Maine convention of 1819, serving on the committee that drafted the new constitution and as treasurer of the convention. The following year he succeeded Samuel Freeman as judge of probate for Cumberland County. When William King resigned as governor of Maine in 1821, Parris was elected, after an interim, in a triangular contest that almost split the Democratic party in Maine. He was annually reëlected until 1826, when he refused to be a candidate. His terms as governor were uneventful ones, in which the lands held in common with Massachusetts and the northeastern boundary were the most prominent matters for discussion.
On his recommendation the legislature authorized him to collect materials on the boundary question, which was rapidly becoming serious. In 1827 he succeeded John Holmes as United States senator but resigned on August 26, 1828, to become associate justice of the supreme court of Maine. Although long absence from legal work forced him to intensive study, he filled this office intelligently though not brilliantly. This post he gave up in 1836 to become second comptroller of the federal treasury, a position he held for thirteen years. He returned to private law practice in Portland, but in 1852 he was elected mayor with the support of the faction opposed to the Maine liquor law. His only defeat at the polls and his last venture into politics came in 1854, when he was the Democratic candidate for governor. Distinguished for common sense more than for brilliance, he was a politician rather than a jurist or statesman. Guided largely by expediency he advanced from office to office, each more highly salaried than the one before. He sacrificed a senatorship for the safety of a judgeship. He died at age 69 in Portland on February 11, 1857 and was interred at the Evergreen Cemetery.
Albion Keith Parris was an urbane, courteous, shrewd, he built up a great following. He wrote skilful and well-placed political letters. He avoided responsibility on momentous issues. In life he was a practical success.
In 1810 Albion Keith Parris was married to Sarah Whitman, the daughter of Levi Whitman of Wellfleet, Massachussets. They had six children.
