FOOTNOTES:
[S] The present orthography of such names as have materially changed their forms is here given: Alsop for Alsup; Blakeslee or Blakeley, Blackly; Bradley, Bradly; Bristol, Bristoll; Brackett, Brockett; Bunnel, Bunnill; Candee, Cande; Dawson, Dauson; Gilbert, Gibberts; Eaton, Heaton; Higgins?, contraction of Higginbottom, Hingambottom; Hotchkiss, Hotchkis; Humaston, Humerston; Lines and Lynde, Loines; Mallory, Mallery; Merriman, Marriman; Morse, Moss; Molthrop, Multrop; Monson, Munson; Osborn, Osbourn; Payne, Pain; Punderson, Ponderson; Prindle, Pringle; Thompson, Thomson; Turner, Turnor; Umberfield?, Umphervile; Woodin, Wooden.
[MEMOIR OF ENOCH PARSONS, ESQ., OF HARTFORD, CT.]
The name of Parsons is found among the earliest emigrants to New England, and it designated a family of high respectability in the parent country. As early as 1481, John Parsons was Mayor of Hereford in the county of Herefordshire, and Sir Thomas Parsons of Great Milton, from one branch of the family, received the honor of knighthood from Charles I., about the year 1634, and his descendants are still found at Great Milton and in the city of London. The Coat of Arms granted to Sir Thomas is thus described: "He beareth gules, two chevrons ermine, between three eagles displayed, or;" Crest: "an eagle's leg erased at the thigh, or, standing on a leopard's head, gules."
These armorial bearings are retained in the Parsons Family in the United States, and by the descendants of Sir Thomas in London, among whom were Sir John and Sir Humphrey Parsons, the former Lord Mayor of London in 1704, and the latter in 1731 and 1740; also by the branch of the family that settled in Barbadoes, of which Rev. John Parsons, M. A., of Beybrook House in the county of Gloucester, Vicar of Marden, county of Wilts, is a descendant, being the son of Daniel Parsons, M. D., of Barbadoes.
Enoch Parsons, Esq., of Hartford, Ct., the particular subject of this memoir, was born at Lyme, Ct., Nov. 5, 1769. He was the third son of Samuel Holden Parsons, an Aid to General Washington, a Major-General in the Revolutionary army, and subsequently, Chief-Justice of the North Western Territory. Mr. Parsons was also grandson of the Rev. Jonathan Parsons, a distinguished clergyman first of Lyme, Ct., and secondly of Newburyport, Ms. His mother, who was a daughter of Richard Mather of Lyme, was lineally descended from the Rev. Richard Mather, the first clergyman of Dorchester, Ms., ancestor of the Rev. Messrs. Increase and Cotton Mather of Boston. His grandmother was sister to the Hon. Matthew Griswold of Lyme, formerly Governor of the State, and was lineally descended from Henry Wolcott, 1st, of Windsor, the progenitor of all who bear that name in Connecticut.[T]
Mr. Parsons was distinguished in youth for mental vigor and accurate discrimination, and for his devotedness to the more abstruse and severe sciences, particularly the mathematics. This laid the foundation of his future eminence as a financier. He did not receive a collegiate education, but his academical course pursued at the Institutions at Pomfret and Plainfield, was extensive and thorough. His favorite studies naturally inclined him to commercial pursuits; and to qualify himself for these, he engaged in the year 1785 and 1786, in the service of Messrs. Broome and Platt, who, at that time, owned a great commercial house in New Haven, where he acquired a complete mercantile education. His proficiency and accuracy as an accountant soon brought him into notice, and in the year 1787 he was employed by the late Gov. Oliver Wolcott, Jun., who was at that time State Auditor of accounts, to arrange and prepare for adjustment the Revolutionary claims of Connecticut upon the United States. This was an arduous task for a young man, requiring great methodical accuracy and precision, and it was performed with ability and acceptance.