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Isabella Louisa ParryPrint Page 
The plaque erected by the Australian Agricultural Company commemorates Isabella Parry, wife of Sir William Parry, a former Commissioner.
Early in 1830, after a fifteen-hour sea voyage from Sydney, Isabella Parry disembarked at Tahlee, Port Stephens, north of Newcastle in the Hunter Valley. She was accompanied by her husband, Sir William Edward Parry, the polar explorer. He was taking up his appointment as superintendent of the holdings of the Australian Agricultural Company which had been granted a million acres in New South Wales.
Her husband ran the local church in Stroud, while she opened a school for 42 young pupils and another for adult convicts, and she established a lending library. She visited the sick and concerned herself, as her admiring husband recorded, with the temporal and the spiritual well-being of all around her. In an all-too-rare experience, she successfully befriended the aboriginal people in a nearby camp. The family returned to England in 1837 and she died in 1839 at age 39.
Location
| Address: | Cowper Street, St John the Evangelist Anglican Church, Stroud, 2425 |
|---|---|
| State: | NSW |
| Area: | AUS |
| GPS Coordinates: | Lat: -32.405097 Long: 151.968073 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate. |
Details
| Monument Type: | Plaque |
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| Monument Theme: | People |
| Sub-Theme: | Settlement |
Dedication
In memory of the Honble. Isabella Louisa Parry,
Wife of Sir. W.E. Parry, Knight, Captain in the Royal Navy, and formerly Commissioner for the Australian Agricultural Company.
Sincere and earnest in personal piety, and most exemplary in all duties of domestic life;
She was yet further constrained by the love of that Redeemer on whose merits she depended for salvation,
To seek by her influence and persevering efforts among the people around her,
The advancement of true religion, sound morality, and Christian education,
Deeply impressed with sense of the benefits which she thus conferred upon the community of Port Stephens,
The Directors, Officers, and servants of the Company, have erected this tablet, that the remembrance of them, may be committed to future generations, she departed this life on the 13th of May, 1839,
Aged 39 years.
