Samuel Holden Parsons

Samuel Holden Parsons
Born(1737-05-14)May 14, 1737
Lyme, Connecticut
DiedNovember 17, 1789(1789-11-17) (aged 52)
Beaver River (Pennsylvania)
Allegiance United States of America
Service / branch Continental Army
Rank Major General
Battles / warsAmerican Revolutionary War
Other workpioneer to the Ohio Country
The Fort of West Point, New York, Gen. Holden Parsons was its commander

Samuel Holden Parsons (May 14, 1737 – November 17, 1789) was an American lawyer, jurist, general[1] in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and a pioneer to the Ohio Country.[2][3][4] Parsons was described as "Soldier, scholar, judge, one of the strongest arms on which Washington leaned, who first suggested the Continental Congress, from the story of whose life could almost be written the history of the Northern War"[5] by Senator George F. Hoar of Massachusetts

Parsons was born in Lyme, Connecticut, the son of Jonathan Parsons and Phoebe (Griswold) Parsons. At the age of nine, his family moved to Newburyport, Massachusetts, where his father, an ardent supporter of the First Great Awakening, took charge of the town's new Presbyterian congregation.

Parsons graduated from Harvard College in 1756 and returned to Lyme to study law in the office of his uncle, Connecticut governor Matthew Griswold (governor). He was admitted to the bar in 1759, and started his law practice in Lyme. In 1761, he married Mehitabel Mather (1743–1802), a great-great-great-granddaughter of Rev. Richard Mather. Well-connected politically, he was elected to the General Assembly in 1762, where he remained a representative until his removal to New London.

  1. ^ Heitman, Officers of the Continental Army, 428.
  2. ^ Hildreth, Early Pioneer Settlers of Ohio, 186-216.
  3. ^ Leiter, Generals of the Continental Army, 70.
  4. ^ Hinman, Connecticut during the War of the Revolution, 141-42.
  5. ^ Hall, Life and Letters of Samuel Holden Parsons, vi.