Inspired, they returned home and together with a small group of other local artists—including James Parry, Arthur Perigal, and Charles Calvert—formed a new society called the Associated Artists of Manchester.
[11][12][13] Over the following months the group secured support from prominent local figures (including Sir Oswald Mosley), elected a board of governors, and agreed on a primary objective: the establishment of "the Manchester Institution for the Promotion of Literature, Science, and the Arts," containing art galleries (for annual exhibitions of works by local artists), lecture theatres, a library, and research laboratories.
[11][12][13] After raising £21,100 (roughly £1.6m in 2023 adjusted for inflation) a plot of land was purchased on Mosley Street in 1825, and construction started on a building designed by Charles Barry which would be completed by 1834.
[2][17] His brother James continued to be an important member of Manchester's artistic community for several decades, but Parry's relatively short career meant that he soon faded from memory, and today only one of his paintings—The Misses Heywood (1817)—is in the permanent collection of a British art museum (though the National Portrait Gallery has a small number of mezzotint prints which were copied from some of Parry's original portraits).
"[7] He was buried at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, but the church's burial ground was lost in the mid-19th century as it became part of the route of Duncannon Street, which was built to provide access to newly constructed Trafalgar Square.