Thomas Parlby

Arms of Thomas Parlby: Argent, a parrot vert. These arms are not recognised by the College of Arms in London, but were nevertheless used by his family, as visible on a marble chimneypiece circa 1780 in Stover House, Devon, the home of his sister Mary Parlby.^[1]

Thomas Parlby (1727–1802) Stone Hall, Stonehouse, in Plymouth^[2] "the big house overlooking Stonehouse Pool"^[3] (since demolished), was a civil engineering contractor described in his obituary in the Gentleman's Magazine as "Master Mason of HM Docks".^[4]

Origins

He was of humble origin, born in 1727, the youngest son of John Parlby (d.1766) of Gravesend,^[5] or Chatham,^[6] in Kent, by his wife Anne. John was a ship's carpenter, as were Thomas's two brothers, who also served as warrant officers in the Royal Navy. In 1745 his sister Mary Parlby married James Templer at Greenwich and moved to Rotherhithe.^[7]

Career

Historic Portsmouth Dockyard, Number 1 Basin and the dry dock group, which today house HMS Victory (centre, no.2 dock) and the Mary Rose (right, no.3 dock, under white cover), "which complex is widely regarded as the finest example of a dock group of its age".^[8]

HMS Victory seen across Basin Number 1, Historic Portsmouth Dockyard

Number 1 Basin and the dry dock group with HMS Victory

Royal Marine Barracks, Stonehouse

Parlby and his partner and brother-in-law James I Templer (1722-1782), who operated as a partnership known as "Temple & Parlby", were civil engineering contractors and contractors to the Navy Board. They operated at a time of major expansion in the royal dockyards of Great Britain due to the frequent wars with Spain and France which occurred between 1739 and 1815. Templer died unexpectedly in 1782, when Parlby took over the business. Amongst their works were:

• Plymouth Dockyard. They won the government contract to rebuild Plymouth Dockyard in 1763, and nearly doubled it in size by levelling the hill to the south and replacing all the buildings except the officers' accommodation.^[9] One of these docks is still known as the "Parlby Dock", after the "Great Parlby Dock", "the biggest anywhere yet then constructed, capable of accommodating the largest first rate of any navy".^[10]
• Royal Naval Hospital, Stonehouse, Plymouth (1758)^[11] The hospital housed 1200 patients in sixty wards, its ten ward blocks being arranged around a courtyard with a central block containing the chapel, dispensary and staff housing. The hospital closed in 1995 and is now a gated residential complex called Millfields.
• Royal Marine Barracks, Stonehouse. The same partnership also built between 1779–85 in the classical style the Royal Marine Barracks on Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth, which still survive on three sides of a courtyard now closed by 19th-century additions, described by Copper Plate Magazine as " a fine pile of buildings".^[12]
• Portsmouth Dockyard, Number 1 Basin and the dry dock group, which today house HMS Victory and the Mary Rose, "which complex is widely regarded as the finest example of a dock group of its age".^[13]
• St Ann's Church, Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth (1786), the spiritual home of the Royal Navy which contains numerous memorials to men lost at sea.

Detail from portrait by Thomas Beach of Sir John de la Pole, 6th Baronet, showing writing on the scroll held in his right hand: "Plan of Shute House built by Sir John William De la Pole Bt. July 1787, T. Parlby Esqr. Archt."

• New Shute House, Devon, a country house designed and built by Thomas Parlby for James Templer's daughter Anne and her husband Sir John de la Pole, 6th Baronet. The identity of the architect as Thomas Parlby, the uncle of Lady Anne Pole and business partner of her father James I Templer, was apparently first discovered by Maureen Turner in her 1999 MA dissertation at Exeter University.^[14] The identity had eluded both Bridie,^[15] the principal author on the house and also Pevsner and Cherry (2004), the writers on architectural history, who wrote: "One would like to know the architect of this handsome late Palladian composition of 1787".^[16] Whilst at Antony House in Cornwall researching the Pole family, Turner inspected closely the portrait of Sir John Pole the builder, more especially the roll of paper held in his right hand, and discovered drawn thereon a partial plan of the new house with the following words written beneath: "Plan of Shute House built by Sir John William De la Pole Bt. July 1787, T. Parlby Esqr. Archt."
• Stonehouse Chapel, Plymouth (1787)
• Kitchens, Saltram House. Parlby also in a smaller commission rebuilt the kitchens at Saltram House after the fire of 1778, "a fine lofty room with a coved ceiling".^[17]
• Bath House, Antony House, Cornwall (1788–90), for the Pole family.^[18]
• Durnford Street, Plymouth, speculative residences.^[19]

Marriage & progeny

Parlby married in 1748 Lydia Martyn and settled in Deptford and later moved to Plymouth. By his wife he had progeny including:^[20]

• Priscilla Parlby, who in 1800 married Admiral Sir Charles Ekins GCB (1768-1855), Royal Navy.
• Lt.Col. James Templer Parlby (d.1826), so named possibly from Templer having been his godfather, is commemorated by a monument at Berhampore, Bengal, India as follows:^[21]

"Sacred to the Memory of Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant James Templer Parlby, of the Corps of Engineers, who died on the 1st December 1826, during a very long residence at Berhampore. He displayed the virtues which characterize and adorn the English gentleman, and his Monument is erected by his friends at the station as a memorial of their attachment, aged 64 years" ^[22]

• John Alexander Parlby (d.1849), JP, who married in 1792 Laetitia Hall (d.1848), daughter and co-heir of Humphrey Hall of Manadon House, Crown Hill, Plymouth and Goldings, Herts, by his wife Jane St John, daughter of John St John, 10th Baron St John.^[23] Cecil St John Hall Parlby (b. 1912) still owned Manadon in 1937, and was also lord of the manors of Weston Peverell and Sampford Spiney. His brother John Reginald Hall Parlby (b. 1916) in 1937 lived at Stonehouse, Bishop's Hill, Taunton.^[24] The mansion of Manadon, built in 1681, and the 100 acre estate was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1937 and served as the administrative headquarters of the Royal Naval Engineering College, Tavistock Road, Manadon.^[25] RNEC at Manadon closed in 1994 and has since been redeveloped for housing, although Manadon House and its Chapel of St. John & James remain standing within substantial grounds.^[26]

Death & burial

He rebuilt the old chapel at Stonehouse in 1787 and his 1802 monument, by Peter Rouw of London (who also made the monuments to Sir John Pole and his wife Lady Anne in Shute Church), was situated in the new church,^[27] apparently destroyed by World War II bombing.

Sources

• Drabble, Stuart, Templer & Parlby: Eighteenth Century Contractor, published in Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineering, Vol.163, Issue 3, p. 189 et seq

References

1. See letter to Stover School from College of Arms (Chester Herald) dated 23 November 2004
2. Heraldic Visitation of England and Wales, Notes (1896–1921), Howard, Joseph Jackson, 14 volumes, London, 1896–1921
3. Gill; Plymouth, A New history, p.91
4. Gents Magazine obits. 1802/692
5. Burke's, 1937
6. Drabble
7. Drabble
8. Drabble, S., Templer & Parlby: Eighteenth Century Contractor, published in Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineering, Vol.163, Issue 3, p.189 et seq
9. Pevsner, pp.650–1
10. Duffy, Michael, Parameters of British Naval Power, 1650-1850, p.71
11. Knight, Roger, Britain Against Napoleon: The Organization of Victory, 1793-1815
12. Pevsner, p.655
13. Drabble, S., Templer & Parlby: Eighteenth Century Contractor, published in Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineering, Vol.163, Issue 3, p.189 et seq
14. Turner, Maureen A., The Building of New Shute House 1787–1790, MA dissertation, Local & Regional History, University of Exeter, Sept 1999
15. Bridie, Marion Ferguson, The Story of Shute: The Bonvilles and the Poles, Axminster, 1955. (Published by Shute School Ltd.), reprinted 1995, Bridport
16. Pevsner, Nikolaus & Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p.731
17. Pevsner, p.90
18. Pevsner, p.90
19. Pevsner, p.90
20. "Thomas Parlby 1727–1802"
21. Berhampore; Bengal Obituary p.382, Transcribed by British Library, India Office Records Reference: Bengal Obituary p.382 (quoted in http://www.templerfamily.co.uk)
22. Berhampore; Bengal Obituary p.382, Transcribed by British Library, India Office Records Reference: Bengal Obituary p.382 (quoted in Templer Trees)
23. Burke's Landed Gentry, 1937, pp.1754–5, Parlby of Manadon
24. Burke's Landed Gentry, 1937, pp.1754, Parlby of Manadon
25. Pevsner, p.656
26. see image
27. Lysons, Magna Britannia, 1822, vol.6, Parishes: Slapton – South Sydenham, pp. 451–468