Notes |
- Emigrated to the USA with his younger brother, Benjamin, at the age of 15 or 17 aboard the Barque Transport out of Gravesend, Co. Kent, England.
According to one source - CT Family Histories - Benjamin and his brother Joseph Parsons sailed from Gravesend, England for Boston in the "Transport" on 4 Jul 1635.
Other Parsons were in Springfield at this time.
Other Parsons who resided in MA during this time were:
Hugh PARSONS, Springfield in 1649, son Samuel born 1649.
**Joseph PARSONS, Springfield in 1646; d. 9 Oct 1683, son Benjamin b. 1649.
William PARSONS, Boston, admitted to church 1643; d. 29 Jan 1702, age 87.
Samuel PARSONS at East Hampton, Long Island, NY in 1650.
Thomas PARSONS at Dedham and Medfield, MA.
(These men may have been brothers of Deacon Benjamin and **Cornet Joseph Parsons.)
Mr. Parsons, associated with Mr. Pynchon, was`one of the most prominent men in the public business of the place, and qiute wealthy. He was witness to the deed given by the Indians to Pynchon, July 15, 1636. Joseph and Mary Parsons had five children before their removal to Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1654.( Their son Ebenezer, born in this place, May 1, 1655, was the first white child born oin the town, and he was killed by the Indians as Northfield, Sept. 2,1675) Here in Northampton they had seven more children, making twelve in all, but three, named Benjamin, John and David died young. 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 prosperity and endeavored in this way to disgrace them. She was sent to Boston, Massachusetts for trail, where the jury gave her full acquittal of the crime, and she return to Northampton, from whence they removed back to Springfield in 1679. Just after the acquittal in Boston, Massachusetts, her son Ebenezer was killed by 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.
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=princessinot&id=I00630
The new settlement of Springfield, Mass., was laid out and conducted by William Pynchon, a man of great energy and enterprise and uncommon independence in religious opinions, which had brought him into great trouble in Boston, and eventually left SPringfield and returned home to England (1652) on account of the greater liberty of conscience enjoyed there than in the colonies. He was rich and liberal, and the settlers owed him better treatment than he received from them.
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=knrivers&id=I4094
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