Parr family heirloom for sale:
My family are descendents of Sir William De Parre, Baron of Kendal & his wife Elizabeth Roos.
The family line split with Sir Thomas Parr who died in 1464.
It was his son Sir William Parre who was the grandfather of Queen Kateryn.
We are fortunate enough to have a direct line of descent from Robert Parr MA, who was Rector of Kirkby Mallory, Leicestershire in 1600 and who was the Great Grandfather of the Rev. Dr.Samuel Parr.
My sister Jenny Hambley & I have the rather unusual qualification of having a direct line of descent from Robert Parr MA in that, although in each of the seven generations above us there were plenty of marriages, only one married couple from each generation had children and consequently my sister & I have, as I said a little earlier, a direct line of ascent back to 1600 which is quite remarkable.
One result of this is that we both have houses crammed full of Parr artifacts, especially from the time of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Parr onward, including libraries of his books, letters, portraits & indeed the original Coat Of Arms for Parr, issued to the descendants of Dr. Samuel Parr in 1826.
Having moved to a smaller home in recent times, we have had to dispose of a number of inherited items & for example, gave a large marble bust of Dr. Parr (which my Grandfather used to use for long range air rifle target practice, apparently) to the Bodleian Library at Oxford where they have a number of Dr. Parr items.
A book about Dr. Parr was written by Warren Derry & published by the Oxford University Press in 1965 with details supplied by my family.
We have lodged with Sotheby’s in London (the auction house) a large portrait of Dr.Samuel Parr which was painted by John James Halls (1776-1834) and which we can no longer house, so it was sent off to Sotheby’s.
It is a large portrait, oil on canvas, sized 140 x 109.5 cm. Originally valued at £6,000, it failed to reach the reserve at the auction & before I make further arrangements to offer it at auction, I wonder if it is of any interest to any of the Parr families on your side of the pond?
Forgive me please, if I give the impression that I am only interested in selling this item.
Far from it, I take huge interest in my Parr background & feel very privileged to be so directly related to this arm of the Parr line.
However, from a practicable point of view, my wife & I have down sized with our family flown the nest and as we get nearer to our dotage, we need to divest of a few of our inherited artifacts.
Please send me an email if you have any knowledge of anyone who might be interested in this portrait, then we would be pleased to know.
Best wishes,
Chris Pryce
or you can email Alan Hambley.
PS: The artist John James Halls (1776 to 1834) was a well known British portrait painter and the portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1814 number 334 and later at the National Portrait Exhibition in 1867 number 846.
I also understand that a similar portrait to this of Dr. Parr was donated to the National Portrait Gallery in London & sits somewhere in their vaults I guess.