Parr, Samuel (1747–1825)

English schoolmaster and author. He was a great Latinist, but left no work to account for the high reputation which he enjoyed in his lifetime. His chief power lay in his conversation for which he was compared with Samuel Johnson, being nicknamed ‘the Whig Johnson’, but he fell far short of his model. His writings, including correspondence, were published 1828.

He was born in Harrow-on-the-Hill, educated at Cambridge, and taught at Harrow, later becoming headmaster at schools in Colchester and Norwich. After being ordained a priest, he settled 1785 in Hatton, Warwickshire, where he took private pupils. He was interested in political affairs and became prominent as a pamphleteer.