The year 1810 was marked by a succession of melancholy events, in the family of Dr. Parr. The first was the death of his wife, the consequence, it was believed, of excessive fatigue and anxiety in attending upon her eldest and only surviving daughter; whose health had been for some time in a declining state; and who was then residing, for the benefit of sea-air, at Teignmouth in Devonshire. Mrs. Parr’s presence had been required on a trial, at Shrewsbury assizes; and the hurry and exhaustion of a rapid journey from Teignmouth to that town, and from Shrewsbury back to her charge at Teignmouth, was followed by a sudden illness; which, within a few days, terminated fatally, on April 9, 1810.
In the course of her late journey, Mrs.
Parr was met by Dr. Parr at
Birmingham. Their short interview was affecting in the extreme; rendered so by the weight
of their domestic sorrows; and they bade each other adieu, little supposing that that
farewell would be their last! Though, from
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Of her family and her education, Dr. Parr has himself given the following account:2—“Her grandmother was Mrs. Mauleverer, widow of Thomas Mauleverer, Esq. of Arncliffe, Yorkshire, whose maiden name was Hodgkinson; and who belonged to a very ancient and respectable family in the north of England. Her mother was Mrs. Marsingale. She died in childbed of her only daughter, Jane, whom Dr. Parr married in Nov. 1771. The widow Mauleverer, her grandmother, was a very well-informed, well-bred lady, and a most exemplary Christian. She, during her widowhood, lived and died at Darlington, in the county of Durham, where she treated her motherless grand-daughter, Jane, with the greatest kind-
1 “Priestley’s Theological Repository, 6 vols.—These six volumes were given by Dr. Priestley to my late sagacious and serious wife, Jane Parr. S. P.”—Bibl. Parr. p. 87. 2 In a manuscript in the writer’s possession. |
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Much kind feeling towards his wife breathes in the tender pathos of the following passage, written by Dr. Parr on the death of his younger daughter. It touchingly describes the sorrows of a parent bereaved of the object of her fond affection; and bears witness to the fidelity and tenderness, with which she had fulfilled the obligations of maternal love and duty. “Her afflicted mother, of whom she was the constant and beloved companion, and round the fibres of whose heart she was closely entwined, weeps, like Rachel, mourning for her child, and refusing to be comforted because she is not.”
Mrs. Parr was buried in the chancel of Hatton church; but there was no sepulchral memorial of her, till, in 1826, her name, and the dates of her birth and death, were engraven, according to Dr. Parr’s orders, on the same marble tablet which records his own.
Scarcely had the grave closed over the remains of Mrs. Parr, when it was opened a second, and again a third time, to receive
those of her granddaughter and her daughter. Miss Sarah-Anne
Parr had been married, in 1797, to John, the eldest son of Colonel
Wynne of Plasnewydd, in Denbighshire. At the time of his marriage, he was
one of Dr. Parr’s pupils; and as he was then in
his minority, it was, what is termed, “a stolen match.” It proved, as
was generally augured at the time, an unhappy union; and, in a few years,
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Thus, within the space of three months, it was the melancholy fate of Dr. Parr to follow to the grave his wife, his daughter, and his granddaughter; and who but must acknowledge there was some justice in the severity of the remark to his friend, Mrs. Edwards, when he received from the herald’s-office a description of the Wynne family-arms, with the view of erecting a hatchment in honour of his deceased daughter? On observing that these armorial-bearings were “six bees,” he mournfully exclaimed—“Ah! Hannah, my family never partook of the honey of the hive; but the wound they gave was the sting of death.”
Mrs. Wynne was greatly admired for the vigour of her
understanding, the brilliancy of her imagination, the keenness of her wit, and the powers
of her conversation. She acquired, by reading the best English and French authors, a
considerable store of knowledge, useful and ornamental; and what she wrote was written with
much ease, elegance,
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The following tribute to the memory of his last surviving daughter, from the pen of her afflicted father, appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine, August, 1810:—
“At Hatton, near Warwick, died, in the thirty-eighth year of her age, Mrs. Sarah-Anne Wynne, the only remaining daughter of the Rev. Dr. Parr. The brilliancy of her imagery in conversation and writing; the readiness, gaiety, and fertility of her wit; the acuteness of her observation on men and things; the variety of her knowledge upon the most familiar and most profound subjects were
1 See in App. No. VII. a sportive effusion of Mrs. Wynne, humorously rallying her father’s habit of affecting mysterious secrecy on trifling subjects. It was occasioned by his conducting a friend, with much form, into a retired apartment, for the purpose of making, as he said, some very important and very confidential communication. It was written during their absence; and delivered to that friend, on his return with Dr. Parr, to the rest of the company. |
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Writing to his friend, Mr. Roscoe,
he thus un-
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“Dear and much respected Mr. Roscoe,—For these two years, my mind has had no peace; and when you consider the severity, number, and rapid succession of the calamities, which have befallen me in domestic life, you will not wonder at the poignancy of my anguish. From change of scene, and the society of friends, I have derived some consolation: but my feelings are wounded; my kindest intentions have been frustrated; and, through the remainder of my existence, I have only to look for precarious and temporary mitigations of sorrow. You, dear sir, can understand the wretchedness of my situation; and from you I confidently expect sincere and soothing sympathy. I often think of you—often talk of you; and had it been possible, I should have proceeded onward from Shrewsbury to Liverpool. But my spirits were much disturbed about two grand-children, whose happiness is most dear to me; and I was under the necessity of returning, in order to make some arrangements for their welfare. I am anxious to discharge those sacred duties to them, which are imposed upon me by my own deep and unfeigned sense of right, and by the dying request of a most tender mother and a most dutiful daughter.
An event, long desired by the friends of Dr.
Parr, and most important to the young relatives, for whose welfare he
expressed so much solicitude
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Great were the rejoicings, and many the festive entertainments, at
Hatton-parsonage, and among the friends of Dr. Parr
in the surrounding neighbourhood, on the happy occasion. Few, who were present, can easily
forget the somewhat over-acted solemnity with which a goblet of spiced wine was introduced
by Dr. Parr, with a kind of benediction, as the cup of reconciliation;
and, after a suitable address, handed round to the company. Alas! who could have predicted
what happened?—that within one short month, the reunion thus attested was, by a deplorable
misunderstanding, dissolved for ever! Previously to this unhappy separation, Dr.
Parr presented some family watches and other gifts to his grand-daughters,
accompanied by a letter, addressed to each, in which the fol-
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“Your mother,
foreseeing her approaching dissolution, requested that I would give this watch
to her daughter Caroline. I now perform
the sacred duty which she imposed upon me. I give it you, my dearest
grand-daughter; I trust that you will value it as it deserves to be valued. I
earnestly entreat you never to part with it; but to keep it for the sake of
your grandmother, who loved you—of her
grandmother, by whom she was herself beloved—of me, your grandfather, by whom
you are loved most tenderly; and above all, of your own most affectionate
mother. My dear grand-daughter Caroline, I give the watch
to you on Christmas-day, with the hope that this circumstance will make a deep,
lasting and solemn impression on your ingenuous mind; and I pray God Almighty
to bless you, your sister, and your father. Preserve this letter as long as you
live; and read it often and seriously. From just respect to the memory of the
dead, and tender regard for the living, I shall have the watch accompanied by
some additional presents. Keep them for my sake. Caroline,
at no very distant time, and, perhaps, before you visit me again at Hatton, I
may be called to another world; and the hand which writes this may be in the
cold and silent grave, near the remains of your aunt Catherine, your grandmother, your sister Madelina, and your mother. May God’s will
be done! and may we all meet together in heaven! Caroline,
dear Caroline, wheresoever I live, and whensoever I die,
it will be found that you had a
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Nearly the same expressions occur in the letter which was at the same time addressed to her younger sister, accompanied with another watch, “which,” says the writer, “my dear Catherine, on her death-bed, desired, at a proper time, might be given to you, as a mark of her regard; and, as her affectionate father, and your faithful friend, I now perform the sacred duty she imposed upon me,” &c.
Dr. Parr took leave of his grand-daughters, who were torn from him, in consequence of the unhappy misunderstanding, to which allusion has just been made,in the following note:—“I observe, and, for your sake, I lament the present state of things between your father and myself; because it is very different from that which existed when, in the sincere and tender affection of my soul, I wrote to you my letters. I pray God to bless and preserve you.—S. P.”
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