Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/229

 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

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.
 * In Wlnsor's " Narrative and Critical History of Amer-

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.