Rev. Philip Parsons

Philip Parsons, 1729-1812

The Rev. Philip Parsons was born on 22nd August 1729, at Dedham in Essex. Raised by his grandmother, and tutored by a maternal uncle who was master of the grammar school at Lavenham in Suffolk, he took his BA at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. His first post following ordination was at the free school in Oakham, Rutlandshire, then in 1761 “he was presented to the school and curacy of Wye by Daniel Earl of Winchelsea and Nottingham”. 1

He remained as curate of St Gregory and St Martin from 1761 to 1812, becoming the longest serving parish priest at Wye.

In the sedulous discharge of the twofold duties of this preferment, he was engaged upwards of half a century. Of his urbanity, diligence, and classical talents as master of the school, there are many most respectable living witnesses, gentlemen of the first families in the county of Kent, who received their education under him. How well he exercised his sacred functions as their minister, the constant attendance of his parishioners at the house of God while he lived, and the voluntary tribute of their tears over his grave at the hour of his internment, will best testify. 2

In his history of Wye church, C. Paul Burnham refers to Parsons as “an immensely energetic and greatly loved polymath”. He published sermons, as well as works on a wide range of subjects: astronomy; church monuments and stained glass in East Kent; horse racing; Sunday schools; and Dialogues of the dead with the living, where he imagined, for example, conversations between William Shakespeare and David Garrick, Joseph Addison and Samuel Johnson, and Archbishop Langton and Edward Gibbon. As well as serving as holding the curacy of Wye, he was also the rector of Eastwell, and of Snave. Accounts suggest that he did not neglect his parishioners however (or at least, not those of Wye).

Phillip Parsons was far from the self indulgent country clergyman who is supposed to be typical of the Eighteenth Century. He was an omnicompetent ball of energy. He chaired the vestry meeting, and is found instructing the Overseers of the Poor to provide shoes for children, clothes and firewood for widows and apprenticeships for orphans, among many other concerns. With his arrival, vestry meetings become more frequent and the minutes more detailed. He included numerous interesting comments in the parish Registers, such as the supposed cause of death with each burial he recorded.3

Moreover, on 4th September 1785 he opened a Sunday School at Wye – one of the earliest Sunday Schools in Kent (the following year he promoted the idea of Sunday Schools over 87 pages, in Six letters to a friend, on the establishment of Sunday schools).

Amongst his many interests, he made a contribution to ballad scholarship, by sending copies of songs he had collected in Wye to the antiquarian Bishop Thomas Percy. Parsons acquired a first edition of Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, published in 1765, and it occurred to him that the Bishop might be interested in the songs which he had noted.

E. David Gregory writes in his book Victorian Songhunters that Percy’s Reliques

encouraged a few individuals to try song collecting for themselves. In this regard Percy’s influence was seen first in southern England, although ultimately it was stronger in Scotland. One of the many thousand purchasers of the first edition of the Reliques was an English clergyman, the Reverend P. Parsons of Wye, near Ashford, in Kent. Parsons was a conscientious man of the cloth who was in the habit of visiting the poorer members of his flock in their own cottages. He apparently noticed that several of his female parishioners sang to themselves while working at their spinning wheels and that some of their songs were remarkably similar to material that Percy had included in the Reliques. His curiosity piqued, Parsons noted down the words of a handful of these ballads and he suggested to a clergyman friend in East Anglia that he do the same.

After a while, it occurred to Parsons that Percy might be interested in what he and his friend had collected. Between 1770 and 1775 he sent Percy manuscript copies of at least seven ballads. Parsons had noted six of these ballads from the singing of his own female parishioners: perhaps the finest was “Johnny Barbary” (a variant of “Willie o’ Winsbury”). Others were ‘The Two Sisters,” “Fair Margaret and Sweet William,” “Lady Ouncebell” (a version of “Lord Lovel”), “The Maid Freed from the Gallows,” and a fragment of “Lamkin,” titled “Long Longkin.” Parsons’ clergyman friend had taken down the seventh, a variant of “Lord Randal,” from a spinner in Suffolk. If Parsons hoped to see some of this material appear in a later edition of the Reliques he was disappointed; the manuscripts would gather dust among Percy’s papers until Francis Child retrieved them in the late nineteenth century. They are nonetheless of some significance: they appear to be the first folk ballads collected from oral tradition in England as part of the Romantic ballad revival that was stimulated by the Reliques. Moreover, since they remained in manuscript form we can be certain that Percy did not rewrite them.4

Parsons’ first batch of songs was sent to Percy with a letter dated 7th April 1770 – although the first sentence implies that he had already written, to establish if the Bishop would be interested in seeing the songs he had collected.

Sir,

I have been extremely ill for the Last 2 Months or I shou’d have wrote to you, and complied with Your Desire long before this.

As to the trouble of transcribing, it was nothing. I am sure you cou’d not have read my Scrabbled originals, which were taken down from the mouth of the Spinning wheel if I may be allowed the Expression.

[ … ]

The Songs which I have transcribed are such as pleased me; how nicer Judges may relish them I cannot say; of their ambiguity [surely antiquity?] I can have no doubt; I have some few more, but they wou’d have Swelled my Pacquet too much.

I have added an anagram and an acrostick which I think Curious; the Manual Elegance of the originals is Extraordinary.

I could, I dare say, pick up more original ancient Ballads amongst my Northern friends if either acceptable or agreeable to you. 5

The songs he sent on this occasion were

Percy wrote to Percy again on 22nd May 1770:

Reverend Sir,

Your last letter gave me infinite Pleasure, as I find what I sent was so much to your Satisfaction. You are a Perfect Epicure and express yourself so feelingly and earnestly, that I fear I shall find it difficult to feed you as you wou’d wish; however I will do all in my Power and for this Purpose have sent you three more old songs for a present supply of your appetite,- and have besides got the Promise of a Friend in Northhamptonshire (to whom I wrote for that Purpose) to procure me a further Number of them for a future treat.

The two first of the following were taken from the Singer’s mouth;- of the first I cannot help observing that the 9th 10th 11th Stanzas are remarkably like the conclusion of Your William and Margaret- a proof of the truth of Your observation how freely the old Songsters borrow’d from one another;-  The Second (which does not please me so much as some others) I think I have seen in Print at some stall but I cannot say when and where.-  The third Song which was written before the Year 1609 is indeed in Print, but I cou’d not forbear transcribing it, as well for its elegance & beauty as because the Book from whence I took it is rare and in few hands. I need not point out to your observation that noble thought of Despair Lingering at his Gates to let in Death & with the admirably metaphorical composition of his Couch and Staff any more than the false wit in the Last Stanzas so expressive of the age of James the first.

I shall be in Northhamptonshire sometime in June when I will procure what are now collecting and will transmit them to You.

In this as in Everything I shall always be ready to oblige you with the greatest Pleasure

who am

Rev’d Sir

Your Most Obedient

Humble Servant

P. Parsons 6

His letter was accompanied by the following songs

The final letter from Parsons in Percy’s papers was sent on 19th April 1775 – “I here enclose you such Ballads as I can find among my Papers; – If you have received them before, committ them to the flames; if you have not, I wish they may be of Service, & that you may be able to make them out, as it will require some study to overcome the bad writing of Some of them”. The ballads sent were

  • ‘Randall my Son’ (which Parsons noted “a Friend took from the Spinning Wheel in Suffolk”)
  • ‘Long Longkin’

There’s another version of ‘Lady Ouncebell’ in Percy’s papers which someone – possibly Francis James Child – has marked “MS Parsons 1775”, but it is not in Parson’s hand.

Parsons states more than once that these songs “were taken down from the mouth of the Spinning wheel”. So presumably from female singers who, unlike their male counterparts labouring in the fields, were engaged in an activity that confined them to their home, and which also allowed them to sing without interrupting their work. Sadly, he did not record the name of any of the singers, nor – in common with other collectors and antiquaries of the time – did he make any attempt to record the tunes to which these songs were sung.

Philip Parsons died at Wye College the age of 82, on 12th June 1812; he was buried in the parish churchyard.

  1. Memoirs of the late Reverend Philip Parsons, M.A., The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. 82 Pt. 2 July-Dec 1812, p291 ↩︎
  2. Memoirs of the late Reverend Philip Parsons, M.A., The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. 82 Pt. 2 July-Dec 1812, p291 ↩︎
  3. C. Paul Burnham, A Window on the Church of England: The History of Wye Parish Church, Wye Historical Society, 2015, https://www.wyehistoricalsociety.org.uk/downloads/Wye%20Church%20History.pdf ↩︎
  4. E. David Gregory, Victorian Songhunters: The Recovery and Editing of English Vernacular Ballads and Folk Lyrics, 1820-1883, Lanham:Scarecrow, 2006, p38 ↩︎
  5. From the Percy Papers (Percy MS – 129.A), held at the Houghton Library, Harvard. Quoted from http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/percy-papers–rev-p-parsons-of-wye-1770-1775.aspx ↩︎
  6. Quoted from http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/parsons-letter-to-percy-may-22-1770-.aspx ↩︎

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