William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Kendal

William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Kendal, KG (1434 – 1483) was an English courtier and soldier. He was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Parr (1405 – 1461) and his wife Alice (who was the daughter of Sir Thomas Tunstall of Thurland, Lancashire).

Family
The Parr family originally came from Parr, Lancashire. Sir William's great-grandfather, Sir William de Parre (died 1405), son of Sir John de Parre, lord of Parr; married in 1383 Elizabeth de Ros, daughter of Sir John de Ros of Kendal and Katherine de Latimer, a daughter of Thomas, 1st Baron Latimer of Brayebrooke. Elizabeth was the granddaughter and heiress of Sir Thomas de Ros, Baron of Kendal and had livery of her inheritance. Their marriage alliance with the Ros (or Roos) family enhanced the Parr family standing. On the accession of the Duke of Lancaster as Henry IV of England, Sir William stood so high in the estimation of the new monarch that he was deputed with the bishop of St. Asaph to announce the revolution to the court of Spain. Through his marriage William acquired, by right of his wife, a fourth part of the manor of Kirby in Kendal, Kendal Castle, and one-fourth part of the barony of Kendal, which continued in the family till after the death of William Parr, Marquis of Northampton, when the Marquis's widow surrendered it to Queen Elizabeth I. It was known as 'The Marquis Fee.' This branch of the family originally resided at Kendal until the Castle fell into disrepair during his son, Thomas', life.

His paternal grandparents were John Parr (c. 1383 – 1409) and Agness Crophull, widow of Walter Devereux. From her previous marriage she was mother to a younger Walter Devereux and paternal grandmother to Walter Devereux, Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

Sir Thomas Parr, the courtier's father, was sub-vice comes (i.e. deputy to the hereditary sheriff, Baron Clifford) for Westmorland from 1428 to 1437 and MP six times. He was assaulted in going to Parliament in 1446, the case being discussed in Parliament. He took an active part in the Wars of the Roses on the Yorkist side and was subsequently attainted in 1459 with the other leading Yorkists (iborn v.348-50). The attainder was reversed in 1461, before his estates had been confiscated.

He died in 1464. Sir Thomas left three sons (including William, the subject of this article) and six daughters. Of his other two sons, his second son, Sir John Parr, also a Yorkist, was rewarded by being made sheriff of Westmorland for life in 1462; he married a daughter of Sir John Yonge, Lord Mayor of the City of London, and must have lived until after 1473, as in that year he was one of those exempted from the resumption act (iborn vi.81). His third son, Thomas, was killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471. His daughters all married members of prominent northern families.

Life
William was exempted from the Resumption Act of 1464. He was on the side of the Nevilles at Banbury in 1469, was sent by George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence and Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick to Edward in March 1470, just before the Battle of Lose-coat Field, and was entrusted by Edward with his answer.

When Edward IV returned from exile in 1471 Parr met him at Nottingham, and was rewarded with the comptrollership of the household, which he held until 1475. He swore to recognise Edward, Prince of Wales, as heir to the throne in 1472 (iborn vi. 234), and was exempted from the Resumption Act of 1473 (iborn vi.81).

Parr sat as knight of the shire for Westmoreland in 1467 and 1473, was High Sheriff of Cumberland for 1473 and invested Knight of the Garter in 1474. He was sent to the Kingdom of Scotland to arrange about the breaches of the truce probably in 1479. He was exempted from the act of apparel in 1482, was chief commissioner for exercising the office of constable of England in 1483, and took part in the funeral of Edward IV.

It seems probable that he died about this time (cf. Beltz, Memorials of the Garter, pp. 210, lxxii, clxvii), and that the William Parr present at the meeting of Henry VII of England and Philip I of Castile at Windsor, in 1506, was his second son.

Wives and children
Sir William married, first, Joan Trusbut (died 1473), widow of Thomas Colt of Roydon, Essex; her issue, if any, did not survive Parr. Joan's granddaughter by Colt, Jane, would become the first wife of Sir Thomas More.

Secondly, Hon. Elizabeth FitzHugh, daughter of Henry, 5th Baron FitzHugh and Lady Alice Neville, who survived him and remarried Sir Nicholas Vaux; by her Parr left a daughter Anne, who married Sir Thomas Cheney of Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, and three sons: Sir Thomas Parr, Sir William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Horton, and John Parr, Esq.

The eldest son, Sir Thomas Parr, was knighted and was sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1509; he was master of the wards and comptroller to Henry VIII. He was rich, owing to his succeeding, in 1512, to half the estates of his cousin, Lord FitzHugh, and also to his marriage with Maud Green, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Green of Boughton and Greens Norton in Northamptonshire. He died on 12 November 1518, and was buried in Blackfriars Church, London. His widow died on 1 September 1532, and was buried beside him. Of their children, Catherine Parr, queen of Henry VIII, and William Parr (afterwards Marquess of Northampton), are separately noticed; while a daughter, Anne, married William Herbert, first Earl of Pembroke of the tenth creation.

The second son of Sir William Parr was William, who was knighted on 25 December 1513, was sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1518 and 1522, and after his niece's Catherine Parr's promotion became her chamberlain. On 23 December 1543 he was created Baron Parr of Horton, Northamptonshire. He died on 10 September 1547, and was buried at Horton (for his tomb, see Bridges, Northamptonshire, i. 370). By Mary, daughter of Sir William Salisbury, he left four daughters. His daughter Maud and her husband, Sir Ralph Lane, are ancestors of Albert II of Monaco. The late Princess of Wales, Lady Diana Spencer, was also a descendant of Maud and Mary Parr.

A third son of Sir William Parr, named John, married Constance, daughter of Sir Henry Vere of Addington, Surrey. They had no issue.