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Descendants of Joseph Parsons




Generation No. 1


1. JOSEPH1 PARSONS was born Abt. 1636 in Great Torrington, Devonshire, England. He married MARY BLISS November 02, 1642. She was born 1620 in England, and died January 29, 1711/12 in Springfield, Mass..

Notes for J
OSEPH PARSONS:
Excerpted from:
Parsons Family
Descendants of Cornet Joseph Parsons
Springfield, 1636 - Northampton, 1655
by Henry Parsons, A.M.
Joseph Parsons is believed to have been the first of the name in America. He was known as Cornet Joseph, from the military title which he, in later years, bore; the Cornet being the color-bearer and third in command in a British troop or regiment of cavalry. The best attainable evidence is tha he was born at or near Great Torrington, Devonshire, England, about 1618, and came to America about 1635, possibly earlier. On July 15, 1636, he was a witness to the deed of cession made by the Indians to William Pynchon and others of a large tract of land on both sides of the Connecticut River, the called Agawan but later Springfield, the consideration being 18 yards of wampum, 18 coats, 18 hatchets, 18 hoes and 18 knives, a copy of which deed can be seen in the recorder's office in Springfield, Mass. (It is published in full in Vol. 15, New EnglandHist. and Biog. Register, pp 140-141.) At that time he was about seventeen years of age, as he testified at the March term of the court at Northampton, in 1662,
It is possible that Joseph may have resided for a time prior to his marriage in Hartford, and it is further possible that Joseph and Mary may have known each other in yourth in old Devonshire. We find from the Springfield records that in 1646 Joseph Parsons was elected town surveyor, which indicated that he was a young man of good education and enjoyed the confidence of his fellow colonists, as it was a very responsible office, where propery lines for ownership and for roads and all civil divisions, had to be first made in a wilderness country.
In 1655 he, with others, purchased from the Indians a large tract of country at "Noltwog," now Northampton, Mass., where he was selectman for several years, except the second year when, as the record shows, he paid the town twenty shillings not to elect him to any office, so that the might attend to his private affairs. At a twon meeting, held February, 1656, "It was agreed that Joseph Parsons, paying twenty shillings, shall be freed from any office in the town of Northampton for one year."
In 1658 he was a witness to a deed by the Indian Chiefs to Major John Pynchon of lands comprising the town of Hadley, and afterwards was one of the Agents of Northampton who negotiated the sale of these lands to the people of Hadley.
About 1655 he purchased of William Pynchon, for the sum of twelve pounds, Sterling, per year, a monopoly of the Connecticut river beaver or fur trade, in which, as appears from his accounts with Pynchon recently published, he was for many years successfully engaged.
In 1664 he was one of a committee of the town of Northampton sent "to deliver the mind of the town of the Indians," who desired land upon which to build a fort, the conditions being "that the Indians do not work, game or carry burdens within the town on the Sabbath no pow wow here, nor anywhere else, nor get liquor nor cider nor get drunk; nor admit Indians from without the town, nor break down the fences but go over a stile at one place, nor admit amoung them the murderers, Calamanc Wuttowhan and Pacquellant, nor hunt, nor kill cattle, sheep or swine with their dogs".
From 1672 to 1678 he was Cornet of the Hampshire Troop, commanded by Capt. John Pynchon, the first troop of horse formed in Western Massachusetts, and in 1679, he was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, the first regularly organized military company in America.
He became a large land owner inSpringfield, Hadley and Northampton. He also owned two valuable lots in Boston, a rsidence and storehouse on the harbor.
In 1668, a sawmill being needed, a grant of twenty acres was made, but the grantee failing in his contract, Parsons purchased it and made it a success.
In the spring of 1671 Joseph Parsons, with three others, went on an exploring expedition to what is now Northfield, Mass. and concluded a bargain with the Indians for a tract of over 10,000 acres of land on the "great river" (Connecticut). His intimate acqquaintance with the Indians as a fur trader, taking him to their villages up and down the Connecticut valley, made him invaluable in any transactions with them. It is a fact that has been strangely overlooked, or ignored, that most of the early settlers of New England ccupied their lands by actual purchase from the Indians. Many historical writers have stated that William Penn was the first to purchase a conveyance from the Indains, and he has had much praise for doing what had many times been done in New England long before Penn came to America.
His military record is best shown by an extract from the "register of the officers and members of the New Hampshire Society of Colonial Wars, " viz.:
"Parsons, Cornet Joseph, 1618-1683, member of Capt. John Pynchon's Hampshire County troop; King Phillip's War, 1672-1678; appointed Cornet Hampshire troop Oct. 7, 1678; member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery of Boston, 1679; seved in the French and Indian wars, Colony of Massachusetts Bay. He was a partner of William Pynchon in the fur trade of the Connecticut valley and was the chief founder of Northampton, Mass."
Cornet Joseph Parsons was preeminenty a business man, with the courage and enterprise which peculiarly fitted him to take a leading part in the settlement of a new country. Savage says that he was "the most enterprising man in the Cnnecticut valley for a quarter of a century," and Burt, in his Monograph, says that "with perhaps a single exception he was the most prosperous and successful of any of the settlers and acquired a handsome property, the largest, unless it be that of John Pynchon, of any in Hampshire County, an evident indication of his foresight and enterprise."
The public records of his day,, as well as contemporary writings still in existence, testify to his remarkable activity and force of character. That he was a man of integrity and justice is shown by the trust reposed in him in his frequent transactions with the Indians, so necessary in connection with public affairs in those times; while the numberous offices which he filled during his long life testify to the regard of his fellow colonist. He had in an eminent degree those traits which qualified him to be a founder of this new civilization, and a worthy companion amoungthose who made New England known and honored.
In the historical catalog of the Northampton First Church, 1661 to 1891, by Rev. Solomon Clark, at page 9, is this record: "Joseph Parsons united with the little band at Northampton in 1655. Had the title of Cornet. Kept the first house of entertainment in the place. The Parsons family there descended from him," and at page 11, with reference to his son, "Joseph Parsons, Jr., third Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, a man of large business, public and private, lived with his wife sixty years, reared twelve children, all married; had large families. His son, Joseph, was pastor at Lebanon, Conn., 1700-8."
Cornet Joseph Parsons spent the last years of his life in Springfield, Mass., where he died Oct. 9, 1683. His wife, Mary Bliss, was born in England in 1620, and died at Springfield, Jan. 29, 1712.

More About J
OSEPH PARSONS:
Burial: October 09, 1683, Springfied, Mass.

Notes for M
ARY BLISS:
Excerpted from:
Parsons Family
Descendants of Cornet Joseph Parsons
Springfield, 1636 - Northampton, 1655
by Henry Parsons, A.M.
Witchcraft
The following incident in the life of the first ancestral mother of the Parsons family in America, as illustrative of the times, I am sure will interst her descendants.
Mary, the wife of Cornet Joseph Parsons, was the daughter of Thomas Bliss, of Harford, Conn., a son of Thomas Bliss, of Belstone Parish, Devonshire, England. She was born in England in 1620 and came to this country with her parents. The Bliss family soon became prominent in the Connecticut Valley, and has ever since been honorably known in the history of the country. In 1656, and soon after the removal of the Parsons family from Springfield to Northampton, Joseph Parsons brought an action for slander against Sarah Bridgman, the wife of James Bridgman, charging that Sarah had accused Mary, his wife, of being a witch. The record of this notable case will be found at considerable length in Trumball's History of Northampton, Vol. 1, pp. 43-50; also on page 228-234, copied from the original record now on file in Boston. I wil give only its substance.
Several Springfield families, including the Bridgmans, had settled in Northampton. It seems that Mary Parsons' strong personality had aroused enmity in Springfield, which followed her to Northampton, and neighborhood gossip did the rest and she was accused of being a witch. Margaret Bliss, the mother of Mary Parsons, hearing these stories lost no time in interviwing th author of these stories.
"Goodwife Bridgman was equal to the occasion and told her to her face that she did hear that her daughter was uspected to be a witch." Exasperated by this slanderous gossip, Joseph Parsons, brought this action to defend the reputation of his wife. The belief in witchcraft was common at that time and the charge involved an unholy partnership with the devil. We, of the 20th Century, find it difficult to appreciate the situation as it existed 250 years ago, but the trials, persecutions, and punishments for witchcraft which took place in Massachusetts, a few year later, are the darkest blots upon its otherwise glorious history. The record of the testimony upon the trail which followed arouses mingled feelings of mirth and sadness and can be summarized somewhat as follows:
Following hard upon the heels of any disagreement, or quarrel, between Mary Parsons and any member of the Bridgman family, a fatal disease would seize upon some horse, cow, or pig, belonging to the Bridgman family and, as the disease could not be accounted for in any other way, it must be the result of Mary's uncanny influence exercised by way of revenge. Mrs. Bridgman's child died and she said she thought Mary Parsons had bewitched it.
Her eleven-year old son fractured his knee, which seems to have been very bunglingly set by the "Chirugeon," and the little fellow in his agony cried out that Mary Parsons was pulling his leg off, and that he saw her on the shelf. When she went away he said that a black mouse followed her.
William Hannum testified that he had a "falling out" with Mary Parsons about the use of her brother John's (John Bliss) oxen. After that he lost, by disease, a "lusty cow" and a "lusty swine" that had before been well and healthy. In a day or two after, while on his way to Windsor, with his cart and oxen, one of the cattle was bitten by a rattlesnake and died there. "These things," he said, "doe something run in my mind that I cannot have my mind from this woman."
A Mrs. Hannum was also a witness. She lived a short distance from Mrs. Parsons on Market Street. She testified that she had "been warned by some of Windsor and some of Norwattack (Northampton) to beware how I had to do with Mary, wife of Joseph Parsons." Notwithstanding this warning, she spun yarn for Mrs. Parsons and there were disputes between them as to the quantity. Then Mrs. Parsons had asked that one of Mrs. Hannum's daughters might go to live with her, which had been refused. Then her daughter, "though formerly healthy, yet this summer hath been sickly and unhelpful to me which, though I know it may be by God's own immediate hand yet it causes some jealousyes in me against Mary because it fell out within three or four days after I had given her a full denyal of my daughter's services."
And Trumball adds: "Here is the covert insinuation of uncanny dealings by Mrs. Parsons. The daughter, charmed with the idea of living with one of the richest families in town was disappointed at the refusal of her mother and sulked and wouldn't help about the house work."
The decision of the court was in favor of the plantiff and against Mrs. Bridgman, and she was ordered to make public acknowledgment of her fault at Northampton and Springfield, and that her husband, James Bridgman, pay to plaintiff 10 pounds and 7 shillings, cost of court.
And Trumball makes the following comment on page 45: "Mary Parsons was apparently a proud and nervous woman, haughty in demeanor and inclined to carry things with a high hand, she belonged to the aristocracy and evidently considered herself a dame of considerable importance. A woman of forcible speech and domineering ways whe was not unwilling that her neighbors should have the benefit of her opinions on any subject touching herself and her family. A case so flimsy and frivolous and founded on jealousy, prejudice and superstition, conducted before honorable and sensible men. could not well have reached any other decision. To that community, however, in those days of belief in supernatural it was serious and significant. Such gossop was an affront that Esq. Parsons could not overlook in a town in which he ranked as one of the first in worldly possessions."
But the carge of witchcraft against this Mary Parsons did not end with the judgment in the slander suit.
Eighteen years after, the charge was renewed and at about the time of the Salem witchcraft trails. The occasion was the death of Mary, a daughter of the same James Bridgman, and then the wife of Samuel Bartlett. The trail occurred in Boston and is referred to on pages 228-233, Vol. 1, of Trumbull's History of Northampton. At page 233 the author says, "the fact that Mrs. Parsons voluntaily appeared before the court 'desiring to clear herself of such an excrable crime,' and that subsequently she argued her own case before the court must not be overlooked.
On both these occasions she met her accusers boldly, protesting her innocence, and showing 'how clear she was of such a crime.' In this trail Mrs. Parsons was 'called to speak for herself' and from the meagre report upon record, undoubtedly did so most effectively."
In the Bliss genealogy, by J.H. Bliss (1881), pages 30-31, appear the record of the marriage of Joseph Parsons to Mary Bliss, and this mention of the witchcraft trail: "Mary Bliss, the mother of this family, two years after the birth of her youngest child, was charged with witchcraft by some of her neighbors who were envious of their properity and endeavored in this way to disgrace them.
"She was sent to Boston for trail, where the jury gave her a full acquittal of the crime and she returned home to Northampton, from where they moved back to Springfield in 1679. Just after her acquittal in Boston her son, Ebenezer, was killed by the Indians and those who had been instrumental in bringing her to trail said, 'Behold, though human judges may be bought off, God's vengeance neither turns aside nor slumbers.' It is said that she possessed great beauty and talents but was not very amiable."
Mrs. Mary Parsons survived her husband twenty-seven years, dying in Springfield, in 1712, aged ninety-two. Her name as Widow Parsons appears in the Springfield records as a taxpayer and owner of real estate to the time of her death.
In the Annals of Witchcraft, by Drake, published in 1869, I find the following account of the trail of Mrs. Mary Parsons:
"1674. Mrs. Mary Bartlett, wwife of Samual Bartlett, of Northampton, having died in the July of this year, and as her complaint was not understood by such 'Cherurgeons' as the neighborhood afforded, a ready solution of the case was found by attributing it to witchcraft. The next step was to fix upon the witch; and strange to say, in this instance, on of the most, if not the most accomplished and of the highest standing in the place, was fixed upon. This was Mrs. Mary Parsons, whose husto to do with the accusation. She may have been somewhat exclusive in the choice of her associates, and even of haughty manners towards the parties by whom she was singled out for persecution, but as to this nothing is positively known.
"On the 26th Sept., about two months after the death of Mrs. Bartlett, a court met at Springfield. Mr. Bartlett in themeantime had bestirred himself to procure evidence to sustain his charges of witchcraft against Mrs. Parsons in the shape of depositions. This lady, knowing what was going on, did not wait to be summoned, but appeared before the court in person. The substance of her speech was that 'she did assert her own innocency, often maintaining how clear she was of such a c crime, and that the righteous God knew her innocency, and she left her cause in His hands.' But her protestations had little or no effect upon the court of Springfield, and that court at once proceeded to do all which lay in its jurisdiction. It 'appointed a jury of soberized, chaste women to make diligent search of the body of Mary Parsons, whether any marks of witchcraft appear, who gave thir account to the courton oath of hat the found.'
"Whether they found anything extraordinary in this search is not known, although it is said that the report which they made, together with the evidence was forwarded to the Governor and Magistrates at Boston. The accused was also ordered to appear before them, and was bound over for her future appearance in the sum of Fifty Pounds, her husband becoming bound in that sum.
"On the 2nd of March, 1675, she was indicted by the grand jury and sent to prison to await trail. On the 13th of May following she tried on the charge of witchcraft, 'in that she had, not having the fear of God before her eyes, entered into familiarity with the Devil and committed sundry acts of witchcraft on the person or persons of one or more.'
"She, of course, pleaded 'not guilty' and she as cleared by the jury.
"It may be worthy of notice that at this time the Hon. John Leverett was Governor and Gerals Gookin and Denison were assistants. These were three of the most enlighteded men of the time and they doubtless exerted abenign influence on the jury."
     
Children of J
OSEPH PARSONS and MARY BLISS are:
2. i.   MARY2 PARSONS, d. August 23, 1711.
  ii.   ESTHER PARSONS.
  iii.   BENJAMIN PARSONS.
3. iv.   JOSEPH PARSONS, b. November 01, 1647, Springfield, Mass.; d. November 1729, Northampton, Mass..
  v.   BENJAMIN PARSONS, b. January 22, 1648/49.
  More About BENJAMIN PARSONS:
Baptism: June 22, 1649

4. vi.   JOHN PARSONS, b. August 14, 1650, Springfield, Mass.; d. April 15, 1728, Northampton, Mass..
5. vii.   SAMUEL PARSONS, b. January 23, 1651/52, Springfield, Mass; d. November 12, 1734, Durham, Conn..
  viii.   EBENEZER PARSONS, b. 1655; d. September 02, 1690.
6. ix.   JONATHAN PARSONS, b. June 06, 1657, Northampton, Mass.; d. 1694.
  x.   DAVID PARSONS, b. April 30, 1659.
  xi.   HANNAH PARSONS, b. August 01, 1663; d. April 01, 1739; m. PELATIAH GLOVER; d. August 22, 1737.
  xii.   ABIGAIL PARSONS, b. September 03, 1666; d. June 27, 1689; m. JOHN COLTON, February 19, 1684/85.
  xiii.   HESTER PARSONS, b. December 24, 1672; d. 1760; m. JOSEPH SMITH, September 15, 1689.


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