Author: Parsons, Samuel
Biography:
PARSONS, Samuel (1762-1835: findmypast.com)
Samuel Parsons published only one volume of verse, and that under difficult circumstances. He had been an itinerant actor and once retired from the stage could not support his wife and family. A friend organized the publication by subscription of his poems and songs. In an autobiographical “Sketch” prefacing the collection, Parsons provides details of his life that can for the most part be confirmed by public records. He was born in York, Yorkshire, on 13 Jan. 1762 to Samuel Parsons and Elizabeth Singleton, who had married at St. Mary the Virgin (the Minster) at Southwell, Nottinghamshire, on 2 June 1754. His father was a singer, responsible for training the boy choristers of York Minster. At the time of his birth, however, his parents gave custody to his uncle and aunt Charles and Catherine Singleton, who lived in Southwell, so he never knew his parents, who both died before he was five. He was a chorister at Southwell Cathedral before being apprenticed at twelve to a saddler there. Once out of indentures he pursued his trade in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire until 1784, when he joined a company of actors at Falkingham, Lincolnshire, and for over thirty-five years afterwards lived the precarious life of a performer and sometime manager with various companies in the north and eastern counties. His “Sketch” acknowledges the “roughs and smooths” of his way of life, but often names people who showed him kindness. At Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, he married Elizabeth Cooke on 19 Nov. 1789; she died about eight years later, leaving him a widower with children. He married for a second time on 25 Nov. 1816 at All Saints, Sculcoates, Yorkshire; his bride was Sarah Piotti. It is not known whether they had more children. It was only in the last five years of his career that he had a settled position, first in Doncaster and then for a year at the Theatre Royal, York. The subscription volume appeared in 1822 after his retirement from the stage. Parsons lived on in York; “formerly a comedian,” he died on 19 Mar. 1835 and was buried at St. Michael le Belfrey on 22 Mar. (Samuel Parsons, “Sketch,” Poetical Trifles [1822]; findmypast.com 20 Aug. 2023; ancestry.com 20 Aug. 2023; Yorkshire Gazette 21 Mar. 1835) HJ
Other Names:
- S. Parsons