LINKS BETWEEN PARRY, CORT AND GUIONDavid Parry's brother Roger, a clergyman, served as a ship's chaplain early in his career.
He tended to live beyond his means, so David, as an army officer with a larger income, tried to help him. One of Roger's creditors was
William Attwick of Gosport, who traded as an ironmonger but had various sidelines, so it's likely that Roger's debt to him wasn't entirely due to purchase of ironmongery.
When Attwick's niece married navy agent Henry Cort in 1768, he enlisted Cort's help in keeping track of his dealings with the Parrys. Cort set up an account for them, from which Roger's debts were paid while he could dip in occasionally, topped up by input from David.
In 1774 David married
Catherine Okeden, only child of a rich landowner. She brought with her not only a large dowry, but the promise of a rich inheritance. With bigger sums in prospect, he vested in Cort the power of attorney for some of his transactions. It was the role that Cort already played for his navy clients, signing both receipts and cheques on their behalf. It shows that David trusted Cort, but a year later he became convinced that Cort was abusing this power, creaming off money he wasn't entitled to; and complained formally to the Court of Chancery.
It was a difficult time for Cort to have to defend himself. He had wound up his agency business, passing most of his clients to Oliver Toulmin, and was preparing to move to Gosport to take over the running of Attwick's ironmongery business. One way he responded to Parry's complaint was to enlist the help of
Daniel Guion, who followed him to Gosport a few months later. The earlier letter I quote is Parry's reply to the first communication he received from Guion.
From this point on, Daniel Guion was involved in many of the Parry-Cort transactions: notably a bond for £1,340 in favour of Parry that he and Cort jointly signed on 25 November 1776, and a letter to Parry from him and Cort of 24 December 1777 complaining that Parry was not keeping to his side of the bargain, which seems to have sparked a counter-suit that they then brought against Parry.
Eric Alexander 
