Benjamin Parsons

Background

He was born on 16 February 1797 at Nibley in Gloucestershire, the son of Thomas Parsons (died 1803) and Anna Stratford, (died 1812), both from farming families.

Education

After attending the parsonage school at Dursley and the grammar school at Wotton-under-Edge, he was apprenticed for seven years to a tailor at Frampton-on-Severn.

Career

He was known as a political campaigner who involved his congregation. In 1815 Parsons became a teacher at as Sunday-school set up at Frampton. He joined the church in the Countess of Huntingdon"s Connexion at Rodborough Tabernacle in 1821, and on 8 September that year entered Cheshunt College.

After occupying a pulpit in Swansea for nine months in 1825, and a short stay at Rochdale, he was ordained to the church at Ebley, near Stroud in Gloucestershire, in August 1826.

A chapel had been built at Ebley in 1797, but there was no school. Parsons lectured to a male audience in the evenings, established a night-school in a smalle chapel at Paken Hill, and started a provident fund in 1832.

A day-school was opened in 1840. To support himself and his family he also kept a school in the parsonage.

Parson preached at Ebley for the last time, in poor health, on 24 October 1854.

He died on 10 January 1855, and was buried at Ebley. A memorial sermon was preached by Edwin Paxton Hood, at Nibley and Ebley. Parsons married, on 3 November 1830, Amelia, daughter of Samuel Fry of Devonport.

They had several children, including Anna Shatford Lloyd.

Views

Parsons was an abolitionist ahead of the Slavery Abolition Acting 1833, and supported the "six points" of Chartism. He became an opponent of the Corn Laws, bringing forward a motion in 1841 at an Anti-Corn Law League conference. His three main causes as an activist were education of on the voluntary system (as opposed to state education), the temperance movement, and observance of the Sabbath.

Connections

opponent:

Corn Laws