Edward Parsons

Edward Parsons (1762-1833) was an Independent minister at Leeds.  He had been educated at Trevecca College in Wales and had preached considerably in various chapels connected with the Countess of Huntington’s connexion.  He unsuccessfully candidated for the pastorate at Cannon Street in Manchester in 1784, but was declined due to his youth. He came to Leeds in 1784 to serve as the assistant pastor to John Edwards at White Chapel, a Calvinistic Methodist congregation.  Upon Mr. Edward’s death in 1785, Parsons became sole pastor.  In 1792 the church moved to a new chapel at Salem.  He remained there for over forty years, before retiring at the age of seventy in 1832.  He died on 29 July 1833.  Parsons was a decided evangelical, influenced much by Whitefield.  Parsons even preached at Whitefield’s Tabernacle in London, and at the Tottenham Court Chapel.   He published editions of Watts, Edwards, and Charnock; of Neal’s History of the Puritans and Simpson’s Plea for the Divinity of Christ, in conjunction with the Rev. Dr. Williams.  See James Miall, Congregationalism in Yorkshire: A Chapter in Modern Church History.  London: John Snow, 1868, 305-06; also Evang. Mag. 1833, 451, 513; and Cong. Mag. 1833, 638.