[5] In James Butterworth's guide to Manchester of that same year, he notes that Parry, "an experienced painter and engraver," was living on Piccadilly, around the corner from fellow artist William Bradley.

[9][10][11][12] As a painter he was strongly influenced by his father in style, choice of subject matter, and even signature (leading to confusion between the two by later collectors and antiquarians)—they each produced a wide range of portraits and landscapes, including marine and rural scenes, but they both became especially known for their depictions of the buildings and streets of Manchester as it transformed into a modern city during the Industrial Revolution.

[5][27][28] The success of the exhibition led to the founding of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts in 1859 as a school which could continue to develop the city's homegrown artistic talent.

[12] According to Robert Crozier (writing in 1883) Parry was a regular of the Crown & Anchor pub on Cateaton Street, where he sat in the same chair each evening beneath a portrait which had been paid for by a group of his admirers—the dedication to Parry on the back, dated 6 November 1863, said that they had "frequently had the opportunity of meeting you and enjoying the pleasure of your conversation and society [and] have been anxious to obtain a portrait of you which shall Perpetually recall the past pleasure and preserve the memory of one we so highly esteem.

"[5] However, Crozier also says that Parry's final years were difficult, and he was an inmate of the New Bridge Street workhouse when he died on 14 July 1877; "senile decay" was recorded as his cause of death.

[32][5] By the time of his death he had fallen into obscurity, and even his extended family seems to have been unsure as to his fate—his entry in the Dictionary of National Biography, published in 1895 and reliant on David Henry Parry's grandson as a primary source, speculates (incorrectly) that he died in 1871.