sage: ‘A canon upon a plain song is the most difficult part of composition. … This of Parsley's has many faults which nothing can excuse but its being a canon upon a plain song’ (ib. ed. 1608, with manuscript notes, in Brit. Mus.).
Among manuscript music by Parsley preserved in the principal libraries are: (1) ‘Conserva me,’ (2) ‘Benedicam Dominum,’ and (3) ‘Domine quid multiplicati,’ in lute notation (Brit Mus. Addit. MS. 29246, ff. 8, 12 b). 4. Te Deum, a 4. 5. Benedictus, a 4. 6. ‘Perslis’ or ‘Pslyes Clock,’ a 5 (ib. 30480–4, ff. in Cantus 4, 11, 70 b). 7. Spes nostra a 5 (ib. 31390, f. 11 b). 8. In Nomine (ib. 32377, f. 20 b).
[Blomefield's Hist. of Norfolk, iv. 27; authorities quoted.]
PARSON, THOMAS (1631–1681?), dissenting divine, born in 1631, was second son of a Thomas Parson of London, and possibly a grandson of Thomas Parsonne of Wisbech in the Isle of Ely (see Sir T. Phillips, Cambridge Visitation, 1619). He was admitted to Pembroke College, Cambridge, on 19 June 1647. In 1650 he was nominated fellow by Cromwell. On 14 May 1654, being then M.A., he was publicly ordained by the fourth London classis at St. Bennet's Gracechurch (Minutes of the Fourth London Classis, transcript), and he accepted a call to the church of Chingford in Essex. In 1655 Robert Plume had taken his place as minister there (David, Nonconformity in Essex, p. 280). At the twenty-first synod of the provincial assembly of London, May–November 1657, Parson was a ministerial delegate of the sixth classis, and was then minister of St. Michael, Wood Street. At subsequent synods he acted successively as scribe and assessor, and at the twenty-fifth synod (1658–9) he was ordered, along with Mr. Pinchbeck, to draw up a form of a letter to be sent to the several ministers of London who were thought to be fitted for holding office in the synod, and present it to the grand committee for reformation. This may be the origin of ‘A Seasonable Exhortation of Sundry Ministers in London to the people of their respective congregations,’ which was published 23 Jan. 1659–60, and which Parson signs as minister of St. Michael, Wood Street. In the twenty-sixth synod (November 1659–May 1660) he was again chosen assessor.
According to Calamy, he was held in great esteem among the city ministers. He was ejected from St. Michael's, Wood Street, in 1662. After being silenced, ‘he took great pains in fitting the first edition of Gouldman's “Dictionary” for the press. The excellent epistle before it is his, and an index of authors was drawn up by him, and he searched and consulted them, though his name is not mentioned’ (Calamy, Account, p. 34; Continuation, p. 37). None of the subsequent editions of Gouldman's ‘Dictionary’ [for which see Gouldman, Francis] make any reference to Parson.
On 10 April 1681 Thomas Parsons, goldsmith, who may perhaps be identified with the divine, was buried at St. Mary Aldermary (Harl. Soc. Reg. vols. v. and vii.). On 25 Feb. 1669–70 Jane, the wife of Thomas Parsons, was buried at St. Michael's, Cornhill.
A sermon ‘of saving faith,’ by Parson, was printed in the ‘Morning Exercise,’ London, 1660; reprinted 1676, London, and again in the ‘Morning Exercise,’ 1845 (5th edit. v. 345 sq.).
[Sir T. Phillips's Cambridge Visitation, 1619; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Nonconformist's Memorial, i. 167; ‘A Seasonable Exhortation’ (Brit. Mus.); Harl. Soc. Registers: vol. iii. St. Dionis Backchurch, vol. v. St. Mary Aldermary, vol. vii. St. Michael's, Cornhill, vol. ix. St. James's, Clerkenwell, and vol. xiii. Marriages at Clerkenwell; information from C. E. Searle, formerly master of Pembroke College.]
PARSONS, ABRAHAM (d. 1785), traveller and consul, was bred to the sea, his father being a merchant captain. In early life he visited many countries in command of merchant vessels. He then set up in business as a merchant at Bristol, but was not successful. In 1767 the Turkey Company appointed him their consul and marine factor at Scanderoon in Asia Minor, a post he held for six years, and resigned on account of the unhealthiness of the climate. He then began travelling for commercial purposes, making several journeys in Asia Minor, and travelling from Scanderoon, through the mountains to Aleppo, crossing the desert from Aleppo to Baghdad, ascending the Euphrates to Heylah, and then descending the stream to Bussorah, where he was during the siege of that place by a Persian army in 1775. He next visited Bombay, made a lengthy voyage along the whole west coast of India, visiting all parts as far as Goa. He returned by way of the Red Sea and Egypt, visiting Mocha, Suez, Cairo, and Rosetta. He got as far westward as Leghorn, where he died in 1785.
Parsons bequeathed a manuscript narrative of his travels to his brother-in-law, the Rev. John Berjew, by whose son (the Rev. John Paine Berjew of Bristol) it was edited and published in 1808, under the title of ‘Account of Travels in Asia and Africa,’ London, 4to. A
