Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/358

 (1811–1859), and Catherine Parnell, who married in 1835 George Vicesimus Wigram.

His brother, Henry Brooke Parnell, Lord Congleton, and his grandson, Charles Stewart Parnell, are separately noticed.

Parnell, who is represented as being an amiable, cultured man, was an intimate friend of Thomas Moore (cf., Memoirs, vii. 109), and of Mrs. Henry Tighe, the poetess, who addressed a sonnet to him. His writings are: 1. ‘An Enquiry into the Causes of Popular Discontents in Ireland. By an Irish Country Gentleman,’ 8vo, Dublin, 1805, with a satirical ‘preface and notes’ by a ‘friend to the Constitution.’ 2. ‘An Historical Apology for the Irish Catholics,’ 8vo, Dublin, 1807 (3rd edit., London, 1808), dedicated to the Duke of Bedford. He alleged persecution to be the real cause of disaffection among the Irish Roman catholics, and advocated the removal of their grievances. His arguments received the approbation of Sydney Smith in the ‘Edinburgh Review’ for July 1807, pp. 299–306. 3. ‘Sermons, partly translated, partly imitated, from Massillon and Bourdaloue,’ 8vo, London, 1816, which he designed for the use of country schools in Ireland. 4. ‘Maurice and Berghetta; or the Priest of Rahery: a Tale’ (anon.), 12mo, London, 1819 (reprinted in London with the author's name on the title-page as ‘The Priest of Rahery’ in 1825). It is dedicated to the ‘Catholic Priesthood of Ireland,’ and has a long introduction detailing the miserable condition of the Irish peasantry. The book was condemned by the ‘Quarterly Review’ (xxi. 471–86) as ‘at once mischievous and absurd.’ Parnell protested vigorously against such criticism in ‘A Letter to the Editor of the “Quarterly Review,”’ 8vo, Dublin, 1820, which was responded to in the next number of the ‘Quarterly Review’ (xxiii. 360–73).

[Gent. Mag. 1821, pt. i. p. 86; Johnston's Parnell and the Parnells, London, 1888; Allibone's Dict. of Authors, ii. 1511.] 

PARNING, ROBERT (d. 1343), chancellor, was a member of a Cumberland family. He was acting as counsel before 21 July 1315, when he was seeking a pour-party of lands on behalf of Walter de Kirkbride, and in 1318 he was counsel in a plea of dower in chancery (Cal. Close Rolls, Edward II, pp. 304, 614). Parning occurs as one of the manucaptors for Walter de Kirkbride on 11 July 1322 (Parliamentary Writs, ii. 211). He was knight of the shire for Cumberland in the parliaments of 18 Nov. 1325, 15 Sept. 1327, 7 Feb. 1328, 30 Sept. 1331, and 16 March 1332 (Return of Members of Parliament). From 1327 to 1340 his name occurs frequently in the law-books, and it is clear that he was among the most skilful counsel of his day (Year Book, 12–13 Edward III, p. cxxvii). He became a serjeant-at-law in 1330, and was one of the king's serjeants before 24 June 1333 (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edward III, 1330–4, p. 454). From February 1331 onwards Parning was frequently employed on commissions of oyer and terminer (cf. ib. pp. 133, 285, 300, 496, 503, 575–8). In the parliament of 1339 he was one of the commissioners to hear petitions coram rege (Rolls of Parliament, ii. 111, 114 b). On 23 May 1340 he was appointed one of the justices of the court of common pleas; on 24 July 1340 he was made chief justice of the court of king's bench, and on 15 Dec. 1340 treasurer. On 27 Oct. 1341 Parning was made chancellor (Fœdera, ii. 1180). Although chancellor, he still attended in the court of common pleas, as, for instance, in the thirty-fourth and fifty-first cases in Hilary term 1343. He died on 26 Aug. 1343 (ib. ii. 1231). His London residence was in Aldermanbury. By his wife Isabella, whom he married before 1329 (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edward III, 1327–30, p. 404), he had a son named John. At the time of his death he held lands in Cumberland and Northumberland (Cal. Inq. post mortem, ii. 110). Coke (Fourth Institute, p. 79) speaks of Parning as distinguished for his profound and excellent knowledge of the laws. In contemporary documents Parning's name often appears as Parnynk, and sometimes, perhaps by error, as Parvynk.

[Murimuth's Chron. p. 118; Raine's Letters from the Northern Registers, p. 366 n.; Calendars of Close Rolls, Edward II, and of Patent Rolls, Edward III; Foss's Judges of England, iii. 476–7.] 

PARR, BARTHOLOMEW, M.D. (1750–1810), medical writer, born at Exeter in 1750, was son of Bartholomew Parr (1713–1800) by his second wife, Johanna Burgess. His father, who had been a pupil of Smellie, was a skilful accoucheur, and was one of the surgeons to the Devon and Exeter Hospital for fifty-four years. Parr graduated M.D. at Edinburgh in 1773. His inaugural dissertation, ‘De Balneo,’ was pronounced the best of the year, and obtained the honour of a lengthy analysis in the ‘Medical and Philosophical Commentaries’ (i. 297). He then returned to Exeter, where he acquired an excellent practice. On 16 Feb. 1775, on the retirement of Thomas Glass, M.D. [q. v.], he was appointed physician to the Devon and Exeter Hospital. Parr died in Bedford Circus, Exeter, on 20 Nov. 1810, and was buried in St. Stephen's Church. He married,