PARSONS, SAMUEL HOLDEN (1737-S9). An American soldier and judge, born at Lyme, Conn. He graduated at Harvard in 1756, studied law at Lyme. Conn.. with Governor Matthew Griswold, his uncle; began practice in 1759; and was, for eighteen years. a member of the Connecticut As sembly. In 1774 he removed to New London and became a member of the Connecticut Committee of Correspondence. At the outbreak of the War he took command of the Sixth Connecticut regiment, was present at the siege of Boston and at the battle of 1st and, and planned the atta(1: on Ticonderoga, be ing promoted for his services to the rank of brigadier-general in August, 1776, and of major general in 1780. At the close of the war he practiced law at :Middletown, Conn. In 1785 he was a member of a commission appointed to treat with the Miami Indians; in 1785 he sat in the convention which ratified, for Connecticut, the Federal Constitution; and in 1789 lie became on Washington's appointment, the first judge of the Northwest Territory. He settled near
Marietta, Ohio, and soon afterwards, on behalf of Connecticut. bought from the Indians about Lake Erie their claim to the 'Western Deserve.' Ile was drowned in the Big Beaver River while returning from this expedition. Within recent years letters have been discovered which seem to convict Parsons of treason in supplying the British with information during the Devolution ary War, but the evidence is not conclusive. Parsons published a paper on the "Antiquities of the Western States," in vol. ii. of the Tranwntions of the .1mrrican _trademy. Con sult Loring, A Vindication of (dcneral Parsons (1SSS).