Theophilus Parsons

Judge, born in Byfield, Massachusetts, USA. He studied at Harvard (1769), then practised law in Maine and Massachusetts (1770s), his ideas heavily influencing the Massachusetts Federalist constitution of 1780. His reputation grew steadily, and by the beginning of the 19th-c he was considered the leading lawyer in the USA. An important legal scholar, he is given credit for rooting the US legal system in English common law precedents rather than in French ones. In 1806–13 he served as chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Notoriously untidy, legend held that he relied on his wife to dress him for public appearances.

The son of a clergyman, he graduated from Harvard College in 1769, was a schoolmaster in Falmouth (now Portland, Maine) from 1770-1773;

He served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts from 1806 until his death in Boston. He was a member of the Essex County convention of 1778 — called to protest against the proposed state constitution — and as a member of the "Essex Junto" was probably the author of The Essex Result, which helped to secure the constitution's rejection at the polls.

Parsons was a member of the state constitutional convention of 1779-1780 and one of the committee of twenty-six who drafted the constitution. He was also a delegate to the state convention of 1788 which ratified the Federal Constitution. According to tradition, he was the author of the famous Conciliatory Resolutions, or proposed amendments to the constitution, which did much to win over Samuel Adams and John Hancock to ratification.

His son, also named Theophilus Parsons (1797-1882), was Dane Professor of Law at Harvard from 1848 to 1870.