PERRI
(or
PARRY
),
HENRY
(
1560/1
-
1617
) of
Maes Glas (Greenfield), Flints.
He was of gentle birth. It is believed that he was the ‘
Henry
Parry
’ who became a member of
Balliol College
,
Oxford
, at the age of 18,
20 March 1578/9
;
B.A.
Gloucester Hall
,
1579/80
;
M.A.
1582/3
;
B.D.
Jesus College
,
1597
.
Humphrey
Humphreys
(q.v.)
testified — on the authority of his son-in-law — that he had travelled considerably and had married before he came to
Anglesey
as
Sir
Richard
Bulkeley
's
chaplain
; it was doubtless through the latter's influence that he obtained some
Anglesey
livings —
1601
Rhoscolyn
,
1606
Trefdraeth
,
1613
Llanfachraeth
. He was made
canon of Bangor cathedral
in
1612/3
. His successor to this post was appointed in
Dec. 1617
, which suggests that
Perri
had died in the course of the year. Both
Dr.
John
Davies
and
Thomas
Wiliems
(qq.v.) of
Trefriw
regarded him as a praiseworthy
Welsh scholar
and it is, therefore, surprising that the
Eglvryn Phraethineb sebh Dosparth ar Retoreg
,
1595
, is his only book.
Perri
made use of
William
Salesbury
's book on rhetoric, which is an adaptation from the
Latin
, but his work is fuller and more detailed than that of his predecessor. He was also acquainted with the
English
books of the period and these were chiefly responsible for his claim that there are only two branches of rhetoric — ‘elocutio’ and ‘pronuntiato.’
Salesbury
's views were somewhat different. Moreover, he rejected some of
Salesbury
's terms and borrowed others from the grammars of
Siôn Dafydd Rhys
and
Gruffydd
Robert
. His eulogy of the art of rhetoric in the introduction to this book is highly typical of the Renaissance.
Bibliography:
-
G. J. Williams
's introduction to the reprint of
Egluryn Ffraethineb sef dosbarth ar retoreg
; un o'r saith gelfyddyd
, Cardiff, 1930
(Cardiff,
1930
);
-
Wood
,
Athenae Oxonienses
, 1813–20. Sometimes
cited in the first (1691-2) edn
, 2nd imp., i, 666 — evidence of bishop Humphreys.
-
[He was descended from the
Tudors
of
Penmynydd
;
-
J. E. Griffith
,
Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire
Families
, 1914
, 106.]
Author:
Garfield Hopkin Hughes, M.A., (1912-69), Aberystwyth
