PARSONS
PARSONS
15, 1778, General Parsons succeeding to the com-
mand of the troops April 22, 1778, when McDou-
gall was ordered to Valley Forge. Parsons com-
manded the troops in the Higlilands of the
Hudson until 'June 23, when, McDougall retreat-
ing, he proceeded to Connecticut, where he en-
gaged the British forces at Norwalk and forced
them to abandon their project to override the
state. In 1780 he returned to the Hudson, and
was the ranking brigadier-general of the board
of general officers that tried Major Andre at Tap-
pan, N.Y., Sept. 29, 1780. On Oct. 23, 1780, he
was commissioned major-general and succeeded
Gen. Israel Putnam in the command of the Con-
necticut line. He made a successful attack on the
British forces near New York, which won for him
the thanks of congress, Feb. 5, 1781. He resigned
from the army, July 18, 1783, and resumed the
practice of law at Middletown, Conn.* In 1785
he was appointed a commissioner to treat with
the Miami Indians, and in 1788 was a member of
the Connecticut convention to act upon the rati-
fication of the Federal constitution, the conven-
tion voting to ratify that instrument on his
motion. He was appointed by President Wash-
ington the first chief justice of the supreme
court of the Northwest Territory in 1788. He
MARIETTA-I7as
settled with other New England soldiers near
Marietta, Ohio, and in 1789 was sent by the state
of Connecticut to treat with the Indian tribes on
- In Wlnsor's " Narrative and Critical History of Amer-
ica," Vol. VI., p. 460, General Parsons is branded "as acting as a spy for the British general," an error that has also found its way into cyclopedias, and is based on Sir Henry Clinton's " Record of Private Intelligence," printed in the Magazine of American History, Vols. X. & XI., where Clin- ton seems to implicate Parsons as a party to a plot con- cocted by William Herron, a professional spy, who appar- ently tried to make Clinton think Parsons purchasable. See " A Vindication of General Parsons," by George B. Loring (1888); "An Examination of the Charge of Treason against Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons " (an address by Joseph Gurley Woodward, Connecticut Historical society, Mays, 1896), and "Centennial Oration at Marietta, 1888," by George F. Hoar.
Lake Erie for a transfer of the aboriginal title to
the western reserve lands ceded to the state. On
his return journey to Marietta the boat convey-
ing his party was swamped in the rapids of the
Big Beaver river and he was drowned. He re-
ceived the honorary degree of A.M. from Yale in
1781, and he is the author of: Antiquities of the
Western States, published in the second volume
of Transactions of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences, and of History of the Tally Family
of Saybrook. The date of his death is Nov. 7, 1789,
PARSONS, Theophilus, jurist, was born in
Byfield, Mass., Feb. 24, 1750; son of the Rev.
Moses and Susan (Davis) Parsons; grandson of
Ebenezer and Lydia (Haskell) Parsons, and of
Abraham and Ann (Robinson) Davis, and a great-
grandson of Jeffrey and Sarah (Vinson) Parsons.
Jeffrey Parsons immigrated to the West Indies
from England about 1645 and settled at Glouces-
ter, Mass. , in 1654. Theophilus Parsons was pre-
pared for college at Dummer academy, and grad-
uated at Harvard, A.B., 1769, A.M., 1772. He
studied law with Theophilus Bradbury at Fal-
mouth, was admitted to the bar in 1774, and
practised there until the British destroyed Fal-
mouth in 1775. He then pursued the study of
law under Judge Edmund Trowbridge of Cam-
bridge, Mass., 1775-77, and opened a law office in
Newburyport, Mass., in 1775. In 1778 he was a
delegate to the convention at Ipswich, Mass.,
that opposed the adoption of the state constitu-
tion, and was the author of the pamphlet known
as the "Essex Result," which contributed so
largely to the rejection of that instrument. He
was a delegate in 1779 to the convention that
framed the state constitution finally adopted; in
1788 to the convention to ratify the Federal con-
stitution, and was the author of the proposition
offered by John Hancock, ratifying the instru-
ment and recommending certain amendments
known as the "Conciliatory Resolutions." He
was married, Jan. 13, 1780, to Elizabeth, daugh-
ter of Judge Benjamin Greenleaf of Newbury,
Mass. He devoted himself to his law practice in
Newburyport, 1788-1800, and served as a repre-
sentative in the state legislature several times.
He removed to Boston, Mass., in 1800; was ap-
pointed attorney-general in the cabinet of Presi-
dent Adams as successor to Charles Lee in 1801.
but declined to serve, and was chief-justice of
the supreme court of Massacliusetts, 1806-13, suc-
ceeding Francis Dana. He received the degree
of LL.D. from Harvard in 1804, Dartmouth in
1807, and Brown in 1809; was a fellow of Har-
vard, 1806-12, and of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences. A collection of his opinions
were published under the title of "Commenta-
ries on the Laws of the United States" (1836.)
He died in Boston, Mass., Oct. 30, 1813.
