William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse

“ And just now I was uncommonly pleased to find that, though you are a parson, you don't want to keep a man's nose down to a shop-board, if he has any thing in him. You're not one of the aristocrats—"
"Indeed," said the Parson with imprudent warmth, "it is not the character of the aristocracy of this country to keep people down. They make way amongst themselves for any man, whatever his birth, who has the talent and energy to aspire to their level. That's the especial boast of the British constitution, sir!" ”

“ A strong desire for fair play and justice to all is the outstanding characteristic of Mr. Parsons’ whole attitude towards any question, and, while conservatively progressive he is so liberally and humanely so that his influence in the important association of which he is President cannot fail to be productive of better feeling between employer and employees. ”

“ He married Frances, youngest daughter and coheiress of William Savage, esq., of Rheban Castle, co. Kildare; and, dying in 1698, was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir William Parsons, who died on 17 March 1740. ”

“ He was not executed, however, and afterwards he took some part in the struggle against the supporters of James II. His descendant, Lawrence Harman Parsons (1749–1807) , was created Baron Oxmantown in 1792, Viscount Oxmantown in 1795, and earl of Rosse in 1806. He died on the 20th of April 1807, and was succeeded by his nephew Lawrence. ”

“ Dying without issue he was succeeded by his brother, Thomas de Ros; who, having married, in 1359, Beatrice, daughter of the Earl of Strafford and widow of the Earl of Desmond, was in turn followed by his son, John de Ros, who dying without issue, was succeeded by his brother, Sir William de Ros. Sir William was, with Walter, Bishop of Durham, and the Earl of Northumberland, sent by King Henry IV. to arrange a treaty of peace with Scotland. He was a favourite with the King, who gave him many important offices ”

“ The good parson was a type of not a [Pg 68] few retired country ministers in New England forty years ago: a heavy-minded, right-meaning man; utterly inaccessible to any of the graces of life; no bird ever sang in his ear; no flower ever bloomed for his eye; a man to whom life was only a serious spiritual toil, and all human joys a vanity to be spurned ”

“ That many pretenders would lay claim to the different portions of those rich domains, John Paston and his brother knew full well. The Duke of Exeter had already set up a claim to Fastolf’s place in Southwark, on what grounds it is impossible to say. Others, who had no hope of proving title to any part of the property themselves, expected to win favour at court by offering to establish the rights of the crown in all the goods and chattels. William Paston accordingly endeavoured to secure the friendship of the Lord Treasurer, James, Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond ”

“ No man in his realm should plead duty towards an immediate lord as an excuse for breach of duty towards the lord of that immediate lord. Hence William’s policy with regard to earldoms. There was to be nothing like the great governments which had been held by Godwine, Leofric, and Siward; an Earl of the West-Saxons or the Northumbrians was too like a Duke of the Normans to be endured by one who was Duke of the Normans himself. The earl, even of the king’s appointment, still represented the separate being of the district over which he was set. ”

“ Parson will tell you, and most people will also tell you, that 'tis a very bad come-along-of-it for a human creature to say 'I ban't wanted no more and so I'll be off;' but I won't go so far as that myself. ”

“ Parsons, he repaired to England, and entered the middle temple, where he became a finished lawyer and an accomplished gentleman. Although amply supplied with money, he was not led astray by the allurements of fascinating pleasures, that first flatter and please, then ruin and destroy. To enrich his mind with science and useful knowledge, was the ultimatum of his soul. ”

“ He is brought before the King, to whom he says that he is much beloved in his land, and that, if he were only able to assemble his men, no king could subdue him in it. William lets him go to see what he can do, and gives up to him Le Mans and all the castles of the country ”

“ Sir John Ross, Lady Una Mary Ross-of-Bladensburg, Lieut.-Col. Sir John Foster George Rosse, Earl of Rosse, Countess of Rous, Helen Rowlette, Robert James Rowley, Hercules Douglas Edward Rowley, Lieut.-Col. Hon. ”

“ Of Parsons's college experiences we get less than we could desire; but as he advances in life, we find his mind exercised by the great political and social problem whose solution was to be the experiment of Democracy at housekeeping for herself,—we see him influencing State and even National politics, but always as a man who preferred attaining the end to being known as the means,—and finally, as Chief Justice, reforming the loose habits of the bar, intolerant of gabble, and leaving the permanent impress of his energetic mind and impatient logic on the Common Law of the country. ”

“ Parsons’ portraiture seizes every shade of it, seizes it with unfailing sympathy. He is doubtless clever enough to paint rawness when he must, but he has an irrepressible sense of ripeness. Half the ripeness of England—half the religion, one might almost say—is in its gardens; they are truly pious foundations. It is doubtless because there are so many of them that the country seems so finished, and the sort of care they demand is an intenser deliberation, which passes into the national temper. ”

“ 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. ”

“ His ambition was ennobled by the greatness and justice of the cause to which it was attached—the cause of religious liberty and of the balance of power in Europe. Never did man make a vast political design more exclusively the thought and purpose of his life than William did. The work which he accomplished on the field or in the cabinet was his passion; his own aggrandizement was but the means to that end. Whatever were his views on the crown of England, he never attempted to realize them by violence and disorder. ”

“ We have reached the great turning-point in William’s reign and character, the black and mysterious tale of the fate of Waltheof. The Earl of Northumberland, Northampton, and Huntingdon, was not the only earl in England of English birth. The earldom of the East-Angles was held by a born Englishman who was more hateful than any stranger. Ralph of Wader was the one Englishman who had fought at William’s side against England. He often passes for a native of Britanny, and he certainly held lands and castles in that country ”

“ He died at Scituate, Mass., September 3, 1892.
"Dr. Parsons holds a place of his own. He is one of those rare poets whose infrequent work is so beautiful as to make us wish for more. In quality, at least, it is of a kind with Landor's; his touch is sure, and has at command the choicer modes of lyrical art—those which, although fashion may overslaugh them, return again, and enable a true poet to be quite as original as when hunting devices previously unessayed. His independence on the other hand, is exhibited in his free renderings of Dante.... ”

“ In this way, the majority felt an interest in supporting the men who embodied their own opinions, and fell in turn under the influence of those who held them with greater prudence or ability than fell to the lot of the average members of the House. All that William doubtless intended was to acquire a ready instrument to enable him to carry on the war with success. In reality he had refounded, on a new basis, the government of England. His own personal qualities were such that he was able to dominate over any set of ministers ”

“ At the revolution Ross took an active part in supporting the claims of William and Mary to the Scottish crown, and he was one of the commissioners chosen by the Scottish estates to proceed to London to give the king an account of their proceedings (Melville Papers, p. 48) . ”

“ Charges, both true and false, were brought against William; in a mixed gathering of Normans, English, and Bretons, almost every act of William’s life might pass as a wrong done to some part of the company, even though some others of the company were his accomplices. Above all, the two earls Ralph and Roger made a distinct proposal to their fellow-earl Waltheof. King William should be driven out of the land; one of the three should be King; the other two should remain earls, ruling each over a third of the kingdom. Such a scheme might attract earls, but no one else ”

“ There was doubtless a difference, when it was King William who called the whole force of England to his standard, and when it was only either Earl Hugh or Robert Fitz-hamon who set out on an expedition on his own account. But 614 both processes were parts of the same general undertaking. Whatever individual lords conquered, they conquered with the King’s approval, to be held by them as his vassals and subjects. He himself stepped in only on great occasions, when the Welsh seemed to be getting too strong for the local lords. The same general work must have been going on all over the country. ”

“ Already Earl of Northampton and Huntingdon, he was at this time high in the King’s personal favour, perhaps already the husband of the King’s niece. One side of William’s policy comes out here. Union was sometimes helped by division. There were men whom William loved to make great, but whom he had no mind to make dangerous. He gave them vast estates, but estates for the most part scattered over different parts of the kingdom. It was only in the border earldoms and in Cornwall that he allowed anything at all near to the lordship of a whole shire to be put in the hands of a single man. ”

“ Parsons lived for some time at Begbrooke, Frenchay, near Bristol. She was a deeply religious woman of decided views, and charitable to the poor. She was a great benefactor to the mission of Little Malvern. ”

“ Parsons gave a satisfied smile, walked quietly out of the empty house, re-lighted his pipe and resumed his walk.
It's hardly likely that Mr. Parsons thought of renting the empty house next door to Azalea Lodge, but he walked past at least four times that afternoon. He went home to Matilda Street on the top of an omnibus, and then, like a respectable man as he was, he sat down to a good substantial tea.
Before commencing a campaign a great general sits down to think it out. This is exactly what Mr. Parsons did. ”

“ At such moments, men commonly listen to their hopes rather than to their reason; the prospects and promises of a new reign are always made the best of; and there was no special reason as yet why the word of William the Red should be distrusted. He had not conquered England; he had not as yet had the means of oppressing England; he had shown at least one virtue in dutiful attachment 65 to his father; his counsellor was the venerated Primate; chief in loyalty to him was one yet more venerated, the one native chief left to the English Church, the holy Bishop of Worcester. ”

“ He gave fiefs liberally to his followers; but he took care that the gifts should be in small and scattered parcels. No one man controlled any region sufficiently extensive to give him the faintest chance of defying the King. William had the famous Domesday Book [14] compiled, that he might know just what every freeman in his dominions owned and for what he could be held accountable. The England of the later days of the Conqueror seemed far advanced upon our modern ways. ”

“ For many years Parsons lived in Red Lion Square, London, and was intimate with Folkes, Mead, Stukeley, and many fellows of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies. He was also a friend of Dr. Matthew Maty [q. v.] , who drew up an account of his writings on medicine and natural history, printed in Nichols's ‘Literary Anecdotes’ (v. 474) . He was elected F.R.S. on 7 May 1741, and was assistant foreign secretary of the society about 1750. He was also F.S.A., and a member of the Spalding Society and of the Society of Arts. ”

“ Peray," another bacchanalian lyric, has found its way, like the "Lines on a Bust on Dante," into the anthologies, and may be passed by here with a mere reference.
"Count Ernst von Mansfeldt, the Protestant," if three rather weak and quite unnecessary stanzas could be removed from it, would be, perhaps, the strongest poem Parsons ever wrote. It is certainly the most objective, and one of the most manly and vigorous. ”

“ All I said was I wasn’t talking!”
“Why, I see it,” said Parson. “He’s left out a semi-colon or something; the ‘he’s a beastly sneak’ means you, old man. ‘King meanly tells Parrett. He (that is, King) is a beastly sneak.’ That makes it all right.”
“Does it?” cried the indignant King—“does it make it all right! I’ll make it all right for him, I can promise him. I never sneaked of him in my life!”
“Wire in, old man, and get to the race,” urged Parson impatiently.
“Here, this looks like it,” said Telson, reading. “‘Being the boat-race no afternoon school I am pleased. ”

“ Government is the rulership or control of man by men, in the name of law by means of statute law whether that control be by one man (mon-arche) or by the majority (mob-arche) . The effort of the wage-slaves (now being made) to participate in the making of laws will enable them to discover for the first time that a human law-maker is a human humbug. That laws, true, just & perfect laws - are discovered not made. The law-making class - the capitalists - will object to this. ”