The Parry of Parry’s Corner
- Parry's Corner.
- Thomas Parry
- Gaeity theatre. Photo: Coutesy Roja Muthiah Library
- Roxy theatre.
- Crown cinema. Photo: Courtesy Roja Muthiah Library.
Getting ready to mark next year the 225th year of the arrival of Thomas
Parry in Madras, is the Company he sowed the seeds for, Parry’s, which
became such a landmark institution that it gave its name to the
neighbouring junction which for years now has been known as Parry’s
Corner. While many know something of the history of the company, few
know the circumstances under which Parry arrived in Madras.
The ancestral Parry family comprised prosperous farmers near the Welsh
market town of Welshpool and lived in some state in a large mansion
called Leighton Hall. Here was born Thomas Parry in 1768, the seventh of
eight children.
Why a boy of this background, comfortably off and reasonably well
educated, should seek a career abroad is not known, but that’s what he
decided to do when he was 20 years old. In 1788, he sailed from England
in a troopship called the Manship, arriving in Madras Roads on July 14,
1788, after one of the fastest sailings till that time. The Manship’s
log reads: “Run from the ship Thomas Parry and James Dixon, Seamen.” The
words in the log, however, did not mean that he jumped ship, deserting
it in Madras. Apparently, in the vocabulary of old English seafarers, it
meant signing on as crew but with the captain’s knowledge that he (the
signee) would leave the ship at a particular port of call. In other
words, Thomas Parry worked as a seaman for his passage. Indeed, he
collected £3 12s 8d before leaving the ship on July 17th for the work he
had done during the 110 days of its voyage to Madras. The normal wage
for a seaman at the time was £2 12s a month, all found. But Parry worked
for £1 as a supernumerary; why, I wonder, was Parry in such a hurry to
leave England that he chose this means of travelling in a ship with no
accommodation for civilians when he could have taken a later sailing
East Indiaman? However that may be, he must have had influential
sponsors in the East India Company who could have wangled this place for
him aboard the Manship. It rather reminds me of my getting a bench seat
in a converted RAF Liberator bomber flying from Colombo to London in
1946 with British officers returning home; it was a six-day adventure
for a 16-year-old trying to get to college in the US!
Parry’s voyage was not an uneventful one, though he was not involved in
any of the incidents. The ship had aboard it 117 recruits for the
Company’s ‘army’ in Madras. One of them fell overboard and was drowned
even before the ship sailed. A few days into the voyage, two of the
recruits, one “a young black boy”, started a minor riot after going for
each other. Then, 16 weeks later, the ship was pounded by a heavy gale
which laid low everyone aboard. Three weeks or so later, one seaman
attacked another with a knife, badly injuring him, and received “3 dozen
lashes for his transgressions.” Six days later, yet another recruit was
lost aboard. Thereafter it was a quiet voyage to Madras. A friend
familiar with British naval history tells me that there was nothing
unusual about the Manship’s voyage; it was par for the course in those
days.
When Parry landed in Madras he came with recommendations from his
brother-in-law. He was met by Thomas Chase, his brother-in-law’s Madras
representative. He then met a relative of his brother-in-law, Captain
Patrick Ross, who was the Chief Engineer and had much to do with the
rebuilding of the fort. The engineer soon got him the ‘Governor’s
Permission’ to trade as a free merchant in Madras. Thomas Parry’s
licence for this was registered on February 12, 1789, and he was on his
way -- to setting up what is today the second oldest business house in
India.
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