[‘The most remarkable pulpit orator of his time’: James Parsons of York, Congregational minister.] Autograph Letter Signed to Rev. J. Rawlinson, discussing his ‘intended retirement from my Pastorate in York’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB, which characterizes him as ‘the most remarkable pulpit orator of his time’, and that of his father. 3pp, 12mo. On bifolium. Somewhat aged and with the recto of the first leaf grubby, but with text clear and complete, with thirty-three lines of text in Parsons’ close and neat hand. Signed ‘James Parsons’ and addressed to ‘Revd. J. Rawlinson’. He ‘must, reluctantly, decline to comply’ with Rawlinson’s request. He wonders whether he has ‘seen, or heard of an announcement in “the Leeds Mercury” with reference to my intended retirement from my Pastorate in York’. He does not know how it got there, ‘but the fact is, that at the close of October, fifty years will have passed since I first preached in York, and then, my purpose is to relinquish my Charge’. He continues with reference to his deacon, his ‘heavy’ labours and the ‘decisive step’ he is taking. In the last paragraph he notes that he has ‘taken no engagement from home, except one, for more than two years, and I must yet persevere in the same course’.