James Parry is remembered because he essayed a metrical version of some of the Psalms in Welsh — in free metre — and because there is evidence that his version was seen by Edmund Prys, archdeacon of Merioneth (q.v.), before the Salmau by the latter were published in 1621. This information is given by James Parry's son, George Parry (q.v.), himself the author of another version; the son says that the father was a well-born layman of Ewias Lacy in Herefordshire, a patron of poets and himself a distinguished one — he calls his father ‘Eos Eyas.’ The father presented his manuscripts to William Morgan (q.v.), bishop of Llandaff; this proved an incentive to Edmund Prys and provided the first, rather rough, sketch of Prys's more finished composition (N.L.W. MS. 641). James Parry's version survives in three manuscripts — Cwrtmawr MS. 28, Pen. MS. 220, and B.M. Add. MS. 14895. As William Morgan held the bishopric of Llandaff from 1595 to 1601 Parry's translation may, perhaps be assigned to that period. Some Welsh poems by the translator (and, possibly by his father) survive in Llanst. MS. 50.