Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parsons, Philip (1594-1653)
PARSONS, PHILIP (1594–1653), principal of Hart Hall (now Hertford College), Oxford, was born in London in December 1594. He was admitted to Merchant Taylors' School in 1606, whence he was elected to St. John's College, Oxford, in 1610. He matriculated on 26 June 1610, and was chosen fellow in June 1613. He graduated B.A. on 6 June 1614, and M.A. on 9 May 1618; in the latter degree he was incorporated at Cambridge in 1622. In April 1624 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the office of proctor at Oxford. Afterwards he went to Italy, studied medicine, and took the degree of M.D. at Padua. Returning to England, he was called to the bar of the House of Commons to make a profession of his religion, which he did on 2 April 1628. On 20 June 1628 he was incorporated at Oxford as M.D. of Padua. He was made principal of Hart Hall on 15 April 1633. In March 1649 the committee for the advance of money granted an order to John Maudit, the sub-rector of Exeter College, to summon Parsons to show his reason for the non-payment of rent due to the college. He died on 1 May 1653, and was buried in Great Barrington Church, Gloucestershire.
Between 1611 and 1621 Parsons wrote a Latin comedy in iambic verse, entitled ‘Atalanta,’ which he dedicated to Laud, then president of St. John's College. The scene is laid in Arcadia. The manuscript is in the British Museum (Harl. MS. 6924).
[Foster's Alumni, 1500–1714; Robinson's Reg. of Merchant Taylors' School, i. 53; Reg. Univ. Oxford (Oxford Hist. Soc.), vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 319, pt. iii. p. 328; Wood's Fasti, ed. Bliss, vol. i. col. 414; Commons' Journals, i. 87; Le Neve's Fasti, ed. Hardy, iii. 583; Proceedings of the Committee for the Advance of Money, p. 74; Le Neve's Monumenta Anglicana, 1650–79, p. 19; St. John's College Books, per the president.]