Parris (Alexander) is born in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Alexander Parris becomes an apprentice housewright, moves to Maine in approximately 1800 and Virginia in 1810, serves in U.S. Army in the War of 1812, and arrives in Boston in 1815. He subsequently becomes the city’s second great architect (after Charles Bulfinch), introduces the use of granite to major buildings in the city, and goes on to design and build lighthouses from Maine to Florida. Paris dies in Pembroke on June 16, 1852.