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REAR-ADMIRAL SIR WILLIAM EDWARD PARRY (Knight) was the 

 fourth son of the late Dr. Caleb Hillier Parry, F.R.S., an eminent 

 physician of Bath, who married Miss Rigby, sister of the late Dr. 

 Rigby of Norwich, and grand-daughter of Dr. Taylor, author of the 

 Hebrew Concordance. He was born at Bath, Dec. 19th, 1790, and 

 received his education at the Grammar School of that city. At the 

 age of twelve he entered the Royal Navy under the patronage of 

 Admiral Lord Cornwallis, who commanded the Channel Fleet, and 

 had his flag flying in the ' Ville de Paris.' 



Intelligent, active and ambitious, Parry soon introduced himself 

 to notice, and we find the Admiral making this early mention of 

 him in a letter to a friend. " It is a pity," he writes, " that Mr. 

 Parry had not gone to sea sooner, for he will be fit for promotion 

 long before his time is out." In 1806 Mr. Parry joined the 'Tri- 

 bune,' Captain Thomas Baker, and subsequently the ' Vanguard ' 

 under the command of the same officer, with whom he served the 

 remainder of his time as midshipman. On the 6th of January, 1810, 

 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and appointed to the 

 ' Alexandria,' Captain Quilliam, employed in protecting the Spitz- 

 bergen Whale Fishery, and thus became first acquainted with that 

 vast icy element with which in after years he was destined to con- 

 tend. He subsequently served in the ' Hogue,' ' Maidstone,' and 

 lastly the 'Niger,' Captain Samuel Jackson, C.B. While in the 

 ' Hogue,' he accompanied a detachment of boats, and assisted in 

 the destruction of twenty-seven of the enemy's vessels, three of 

 which were heavy privateers. This and some sharp skirmishes with 

 the gunboats of Denmark, are the only actions with the enemy that 

 fell to the lot of the subject of our memoir, as the peace of 1815 

 happily put an end to all such exploits. 



In 1817 the dangerous state of his father's health obliged him to 

 proceed to England on leave, an event of a momentous character in 

 the career of Parry, for it was at this period that Sir John Barrow 

 brought to the notice of the Admiralty the extraordinary changes 

 which had been reported to have occurred in the state of the Polar 

 ice, and the remarkable advance to a high northern latitude that 

 had been made by Captain Scoresby in a whale- ship, and urged 

 upon the Government the project of renewing the attempts which 

 had been formerly made to reach Behring's Strait by way of the 



