Theophilus Parsons (February 24, 1750October 30, 1813) was an American

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the U ...

Life

Born in Newbury, Massachusetts to a clergyman father, Parsons was one of the early students at the Dummer Academy (now The Governor's Academy) before matriculating to

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

. He graduated in 1769, was a schoolmaster in Falmouth (now

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...

) from 1770–1773; he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1774. From 1787 to 1789, he tutored

John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States ...

in law. In 1800, he moved to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. He served as chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts from 1806 until his death in Boston in 1813. In politics, he was active as one of the Federalist leaders in the state. He was a member of the Essex County convention of 1778—called to protest against the proposed state constitution—and as a member of the "

Essex Junto The Essex Junto was a powerful group of New England Federalist Party lawyers, merchants, and politicians, so called because many in the original group were from Essex County, Massachusetts. Origins and definition The term was coined as an inv ...

" was probably the author of ''The Essex Result'', which helped to secure the constitution's rejection at the polls. He was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1781. He was also elected a member of the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society i ...

in 1813.American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
/ref> Parsons was a member of the state constitutional convention of 1779-1780 and one of the committee of twenty-six who drafted the constitution. He was also a delegate to the state convention of 1788 which ratified the Federal Constitution. According to tradition, he was the author of the famous ''Conciliatory Resolutions'', or proposed amendments to the constitution, which did much to win over

Samuel Adams Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, an ...

and

John Hancock John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor o ...

to ratification. His ''Commentaries on the Laws of the United States'' (1836) contains some of his more important legal opinions. Parsons died in

. His son, also named Theophilus Parsons (1797–1882), was an author and a professor at Harvard.

References

Attribution: *

External links

Brief biography at Harvard Square Library
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parsons, Theophilus 1749 births 1813 deaths American legal scholars American Swedenborgians Chief Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Educators from Massachusetts Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Harvard College alumni Lawyers from Boston Massachusetts Federalists Members of the American Antiquarian Society People from Newbury, Massachusetts The Governor's Academy alumni