Parshall Terry
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Parshall Terry, U.E., (February 22, 1756 – July 20, 1808) was a political figure in Upper Canada. Parshall Terry was born in Matticuck, Province of New York,
British America British America comprised the colonial territories of the English Empire, which became the British Empire after the 1707 union of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, in the Americas from 16 ...
in 1756 and during the American Revolution served on the British Loyalist side with Butler's Rangers. In the aftermath of the Battle of Wyoming, a sensationalist and widely distributed newspaper account of the "Wyoming Massacre" falsely claimed that Terry “murdered his father, mother, brother and sisters, stripped off their scalps, and cut off his father’s head. Although a retraction was published a few weeks later, this unfounded accusation would reappear in early published histories of the United States. After the war, he settled in Bertie Township near Fort Erie but later moved to York (now Toronto). He was elected to the
1st Parliament of Upper Canada The 1st Parliament of Upper Canada was opened 17 September 1792. Elections in Upper Canada had been held in August 1792. All sessions were held at Navy Hall in Newark, later Niagara-on-the-Lake. This parliament was dissolved 1 July 1796. Th ...
in the riding of 4th Lincoln and Norfolk. With his father-in-law, Timothy Skinner, and his two brothers-in-law, Isaah and Timothy Jr, he built and operated a large sawmill on the Don River north of York.Darke, Eleanor. ''A Mill Should Be Build Thereon: An Early History of the Todmorden Mills''. East York Historical Society, 1995. He drowned in 1808 while attempting to cross the Don River.Robertson, J. Ross. ''Landmarks of Toronto; A Collection of Historical Sketches of the Old Town of York from 1792 until 1833, and of Toronto from 1834 to 1914'', Sixth Series. Toronto, 1914.


Family

Terry married twice. His first wife, Melia Stevens, died in 1789. Four years later he married Rhoda Skinner, daughter of Timothy Skinner. Terry had five children with Melia and seven children with Rhoda. His son William later represented Lincoln in the Legislative Assembly. Other offspring opened a pottery warehouse and store — Terry & Sons — catering to train passengers that stopped at the Don Station in Todmorden Mills and giving a name to the winding road that snakes through the property - Pottery Road. That factory is now an art gallery. The only known descendants bearing the Terry surname who continue to live in the Toronto area are great-great-great grandson Mark Terry, a professor at Toronto's York University; his daughter, Mary Anne Resendes (née Terry); his son Herb Terry and his wife, Melissa Terry, son Nico Terry, and daughter Melina Terry. A portion of Terry's home has been preserved as part of the Todmorden Mills Heritage Museum near the former site of the mill.


References


Further reading

*''Becoming Prominent: Leadership in Upper Canada, 1791-1841'', J.K. Johnson (1989) {{DEFAULTSORT:Terry, Parshall 1756 births 1808 deaths Members of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada People from Mattituck, New York Deaths by drowning in Canada