William Parsons (actor)
[1] His father William did carpentry work in Bow Lane, Cheapside and City of London;[1] his mother Elizabeth was from Maidstone.
Parsons attended St Paul's School where surveyor Sir Henry Cheere or Cheke was his instructor.
[1] Parsons's first professional role was that of Southampton in poet Henry Jones's Earl of Essex play in York.
During that season, Parsons appeared in Henry IV, Part 1 as Douglas, in Hamlet as Rosencrantz, in Love Makes a Man and as Robert in All in the Wrong.
Parsons took on more character driven roles in this time period, with character driven roles such as the snitch-servant Blunt in The London Merchant and as Lord Plausible in Plain Dealer to appearing as Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice and Sir William Meadows in Love in a Village.
[1] He would continue the trend of playing military-court roles in this time period when he appeared in The Runaway as the original Justice and as old Colonel Lovemore in the Contract which brought Parsons back to the Haymarket in June 1776.
[1] During the 1776–77 season, Parsons kept churning out original roles at Drury Lane, appearing as Sir Jacob Thrift in Hotel or Double Valet,[1] Doctor Probe in Trip to Scarborough, and as the gossip Crabtree in The School for Scandal.
[1] Parsons appeared in these original roles at the Haymarket which included him playing mogul-Pope Johnny Atkins in Mogul Tale or the Descent of the Balloon,[1] the begging Squire Codger in Beggar on Horseback,[1] Mr Euston in I'll tell you What,[1] the servant Rohf in Disbanded Officer, Governor of Jamaica Sir Christopher Curry in Inkle and Yarico and lowly regarded but fashionable Alscrip in The Heiress.
During the last years of his life, Parsons refused to quit acting, appearing in Poor Old Drury as Cobb and in Fugitives as Old Manly, the latter in August 1792.
[1] His last roles at the Haymarket Theatre occurred in June 1792 where he played Toby Thatch in The London Hermit and as Lope Tocho in Mountaineers (which also was Parson's last original part).
