1750. His father was Rev. Moses Parsons, descended from a mer- 

 chant who died in Gloucester in 1689. His mother was Susan Davis, 

 descended from John Robinson of Leyden, the Puritan minister. The 

 frugal life of the early New England clergy was described the 

 salary of Mr. Parsons being $280 a year, and requiring his labor 

 on his farm and occasional sporting on the marshes to support his 

 family. He was the general adviser of all matters secular and religi- 

 ous in his parish, when he was settled for life. Theophilus Parsons 

 entered college at Cambridge in 1765; was graduated in 1769; taught 

 school and studied and practiced law in Falmouth until 1775 ; returned 

 on the burning of that town by the British, to Byfleld ; met at his 

 father's house, Judge Trowbridge, who had fled from Cambridge for 

 the safe enjoyment of his toryism, whom Chancellor Kent calls "the 

 oracle of common law in New England," and whose library was in- 

 valuable to the young law student ; and in a short time settled as a 

 lawyer in Newburyport. Here he married Elizabeth Greenleaf, Jan. 

 13, 1780, built a house on Green street, lived there twenty years; re- 

 moved to Boston in 1800, was appointed Chief Justice of Massachu- 

 setts in 1806, and died Oct. 30, 1813. Not a very eventful life in a 

 very eventful period. While the great work of the revolution .was 

 going on he was a quiet lawyer in Newburyport. He had great love 

 of his profession, and great powers which would have distinguished 

 him in any sphere of life. While residing in Newburyport, in 1778, 

 when he was twenty-eight years old, the question of a Constitution 

 for Massachusetts was presented to the people. There was great 

 popular jealousy against all law and all lawyers Dr. Loring read a 

 curious extract from a letter written by W. Syinmes, jr., of Andover, 

 to Isaac Osgood, Clerk of the Courts in Essex County, at that time, to 

 show the difficulties under which lawyers labored in those days. 

 While the question of the State Constitution was pending, young 

 Parsons called a meeting of the citizens of Newburyport, March 27th, 

 1778, and issued a circular to the selectmen of the several towns in 

 Essex County, to meet by delegates in a convention to meet in Ips- 

 wich in April of that year. Among the delegates appear the names 

 of Theophilus Parsons, Tristram Dalton, Jonathan Greenleaf, Jona- 

 than Jackson and Stephen Cross of Newburyport ; of Ward, Goodhue. 

 Andrews, Goodale and Sprague of Salem ; Putnam and Shillaber of 

 Danvers ; Farley and Noyes of Ipswich; Coffin and Porter of Glou- 

 cester ; Gould and Clarke of Topsfleld ; Dodge of Wenham ; Perley 

 of Boxford; and "the Hon. Caleb Gushing, Esq., of Salisbury." This 

 convention sent forth the famous " Essex Result," a paper written by 

 Parsons, and. containing sound theories of government. "It was an 

 earnest endeavor to discover and declare how progress and conserva- 

 tism, liberty and order, might be adjusted in human institutions, that 

 freedom should be secure, and peace and happiness be the children of 

 freedom." Upon its suggestions was based the first Constitution of 

 Massachusetts, carried as they were by the young lawyer of Newbury- 

 port, into the subsequent state convention, and submitted to the Bow- 

 doins and Adamses, and Lowells, and Pickerings, and Strongs of that 

 distinguished body. 



After this Parsons retired from politics, was engaged in private 

 practice for ten years, and did not emerge again until the Constitu- 

 tional Convention of 1788. In this convention, when there was great 

 danger of rejecting the Federal Constitution, he offered his well 

 known " conciliatory resolution." That it might be explicity declared 

 that "all powers not expressly delegated to Congress are reserved to 



