PARRY, THOMAS (d. 1709), minister with the Particular Baptists
of Llanigon and Glasbury in the days of the Restoration and for two decades after the Toleration Act. He signed the minutes of the Abergavenny Association in 1653, and of the Llanwenarth Association in 1705; between those years he had suffered severely from the penal laws, as the records of the Brecon Consistory court prove. He lived at Wenallt, near Llanigon. There are traditions about his friendship with Vavasor Powell (q.v.), but they do not rest on very good evidence. He is said also to have acted as pastor of the Baptists of north Breeknock and western Radnor, but it must be remembered that most of them were Arminians, and that Parry was a strict Calvinist. He is hardly ever referred to without a tag of verse comparing him most favourably as a preacher with Alexander Griffith (q.v.), vicar of Glasbury.
Bibliography:
- Joshua Thomas, Hanes y Bed. (Pontypridd ed.), 152-4, 157-8;
- Spinther, ii, 438-9.
Author:
Thomas Richards, D.Litt., (1878-1962), Bangor
