John Parsons
Contributions
- Agrarian justice, opposed to agrarian law, and to agrarian monopoly, being a plan for meliorating the condition of man: By creating in every nation a national fund, to pay to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling, to enable him or her to begin the world, and also, ten pounds sterling per annum during life, to every per has translation bookseller
- Fenelon, or the Nuns of Cambrai. A serious drama, in three acts (altered from the French). By Robert Merry, A.M. A plain, unvarnish'd tale translation publisher
- The negro as there are few white men translation has paratext bookseller
- The private life of the late Benjamin Franklin LL.D. Originally written by himself, and now translated from the French. To which are added, some account of his public life, a variety of anecdotes concerning him, by M.M. Brissot, Condorcet, Rochefoucault, Le Roy, &c. &c. and the eulogium of M. Fauchet translation has translation publisher
Knows
- Richard Lee bookseller pamphleteer poet publisher translator
- Robert Merry poet translator writer
- Thomas Paine journalist philosopher revolutionary writer
- Joseph Trapp cleric pamphleteer publisher translator
Notes
Sometimes published as Parsons & Son. Based at 21 & 24 Warwick Lane, 21 Paternoster Row (1781–1797), 46 Ludgate Hill (1801–1807) and 166 Fleet Street.
The son of a gardener, Parsons apprenticed with Joseph Jeffries. Ran a circulating library and also operated as a bookbinder and printseller. He and his son, John Parsons II were declared bankrupt in 1809. He published an eclectic mix, including anthologies of essays and plays, including one by Robert Merry, cheap editions of Paine, and sacred poetry such as Citizen Lee's 'Songs from the rock'.