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New Hope Historical Society collection on the Parry family
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Held at: New Hope Historical Society [Contact Us]45 South Main Street, P.O. Box 41, New Hope, PA, 18938
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the New Hope Historical Society. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Parry family of New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was a prominent Quaker family. "The Old Parry Mansion," erected by Benjamin Parry in 1784, is the current home of the New Hope Historical Society.
Benjamin Parry (1757-1839), the "father of New Hope," was instrumental in developing the town at the turn of the 19th century. A wealthy owner of several mills, Benjamin Parry partnered with several prominent friends (including Samuel Ingham, Secretary of the United States Treasury) to build the first bridge connecting New Hope to Lambertville, New Jersey in 1813-1814.
Benjamin Parry and his wife, Jane Paxson, had one child together: Oliver (1794-1874). Oliver and his wife, Rachel Randolph Parry, had twelve children together, including three sons who lived to adulthood: Edward, Richard, and George.
Major Edward Randolph Parry (1832-1874) served in the Union Army during the United States Civil War.
Richard Randolph Parry (1835-1928) worked as a banker in Minnesota before returning to settle in New Hope in 1862. He worked as president of the New Hope Delaware Bridge Company and was a member of both the Bucks County Historical Society and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. With his wife, Ellen L. Read, he had three children: Gertrude R. Parry, Adelaide R. Parry, and Oliver Randolph Parry (born 1873; married Lida M. Kreamer; daughter Margaret born 1901).
Dr. George Randolph Parry (1839-1893) graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1867. He practiced medicine in New York before returning to settle in New Hope in 1880, and like his brother, was a member of both the Bucks County Historical Society and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He married Elizabeth Van Etten in 1869; the couple had two children, Elizabeth R. and Jan Paxson.
Bibliography:
Davis, William W. H. A Genealogical and Personal History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania.. Ed. by Warren S. Ely and John W. Jordan. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2002. p. 68-71. Accessed February 21, 2013. http://books.google.com/books?id=-nEHRwRAwxAC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false
This collection includes deeds and other property records, genealogical papers and memoranda, financial papers including receipts, newspaper clippings, photographs, a small amount of printed matter, journals, and other scattered documents relating to the Parry family. Richard Randolph Parry, Oliver R. Parry, and Gertrude Parry are the best-represented. There is also a set of privately printed volumes, "Parry Family Records" (Philadelphia: 1877). A portion of the collection has been inventoried.
Materials collected from various sources at various times by the New Hope Historical Society.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2012-2014 as part of a project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact New Hope Historical Society directly for more information.
People
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- New Hope Historical Society
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Faith Charlton through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact New Hope Historical Society for information about accessing this collection.