PARSON is a technical term of English law, and is a corruption of persona, the parson being, as it were, the persona ecclesiae, or representative of the church in the parish. Parson imparsonee (persona impersonate) is he that as rector is in possession of a church parochial, and of whom the church is full, whether it be presentative or impropriate (Coke upon Littleton, 300 b). The word parson is properly used only of a rector, though it is sometimes loosely extended to any one in holy orders. Though every parson is a rector, every rector is not a parson. A parson must be in holy orders; hence a lay rector could not be called a parson. The parson is tenant for life of the parsonage house, the glebe, the tithes, and other dues, so far as they are not appropriated. Further information on this subject will be found under Advowson, Benefice, and Tithes.
PARSONS, or Persons, Robert (1546-1610), a celebrated Jesuit, was the son of a blacksmith, and was born at Nether Stowey, near Bridgwater, England, in 1546. His precocity attracted the attention of the vicar of the parish, who gave him private instruction, and procured his entrance in 1563 as an exhibitioner to Balliol College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1568, and M.A. in 1572. He was fellow, bursar, and dean of his college, but in 1574 he resigned his fellowship and offices, for reasons which have been disputed, some alleging improprieties of conduct, and others suspected disloyalty. Soon after his resignation he went to London, and thence in June to Louvain, where he spent some time in the company of Father William Good, a Jesuit. He then proceeded to Padua to carry out a previously conceived intention to study medicine, but further intercourse with English Jesuits so influenced his mind, that in July 1575 he entered the Jesuit Society at Rome. In 1580 he was selected along with Campian, a former associate at Oxford, and others, to undertake a secret mission to England against Elizabeth. Through the vigilance of Burghley the plot was discovered and Campian arrested, but Parsons made his escape to Rouen, and occupied himself for some time in the composition of treasonable tracts against Elizabeth, which he caused to be secretly sent to England. In 1583 he returned to Rome, where he was appointed prefect of the English mission, and in 1586 chosen rector of the English seminary. He also devoted much energy to the establishment of seminaries elsewhere on the Continent, for the training of priests to be despatched to England to aid in reviving the cause of Romanism. After the disaster to the Spanish Armada in 1588, he endeavoured to persuade the Spanish monarch to ...undertake a second invasion, and, unsuccessful in this, he incited various plots against Elizabeth, all of which were, however, abortive. On the death of Cardinal Allen in 1594 he made strenuous efforts to be appointed his successor, and, failing in this, he retired to Naples until the death of Clement VIII. in 1606. From this time he continued his active intrigues against Protestantism in England until his death, 18th April 1610.
Parsons was the author of a large number of polemical tracts, a list of which, to the number of thirty-three, is given in Chalmers’s Biographical Dictionary. For portrait, see Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxiv.
PARSONSTOWN, formerly Birr, a market-town of King’s County, Ireland, is situated on an acclivity rising above the Birr, and on a branch of the Great Southern and Western Railway, 12 j miles north of Roscrea and 7j south of Banagher. Cumberland Square, in which there is a Doric column, surmounted by a statue of the duke of Cumberland to commemorate the battle of Culloden, contains a number of good shops, and the streets diverging from it are wide and well built. The fine castle of Birr, besides its historical interest, has gained celebrity on account of the reflecting telescope erected there (1828-45) by the third earl of Rosse. The other principal buildings are the court-house, the Protestant Episcopal and Roman Catholic churches, the convent of the sisters of mercy, the model school, the mechanics’ institute, the fever hospital, and the infirmary. There is a bronze statue by Foley of the late Lord Rosse. Some trade is carried on in corn and timber, and the town possesses a distillery and brewery. The population was 5401 in 1861, 4939 in 1871, and 4955 in 1881.
An abbey was founded at Birr by St Brendan. The district formed part of Ely O’Carrol, and was not included in King’s County till the time of James I. A great battle is said to have been fought near Birr in the 3d century between Cormac, son of Cond of the Hundred Battles, and the people of Munster. The castle was the chief seat of the O’Carrols. In the reign of James I. it and its appendages were assigned to Lawrence Parsons, brother of Sir William Parsons, surveyor-general. It was more than once besieged in the time of Cromwell, and was taken by Ireton in 1650. It also suffered assault in 1688 and 1690.
