Sir William Parsons, 1st Baronet of Bellamont

Sir William Parsons, 1st Baronet of Bellamont (1570–1650), was one of the Lord Justices of Ireland in 1640. He also served as Surveyor General of Ireland and Member of Parliament for Wicklow.

William was born to James Parsons (1545–1570) and Catherine Fenton (1548–1570) in 1570. He settled in Ireland about the close of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, being a commissioner of plantations, and obtained very considerable territorial grants from the Crown. In 1602, Parsons as surveyor general of Ireland; in 1610 he obtained a pension of £30 (English) per annum for life. In 1611, he was joined with his younger brother Laurence in the supervisorship of the crown lands, with a fee of £60 per annum for life. His proposal that a Court of Wards be established in Ireland was accepted and he became its first master. He sat in the Irish House of Commons in the Parliament of 1613–1615 as member for Newcastle. He was notorious as a "land-hunter", who acquired lands previously held by Irish clans by dubious legal means. He has been particularly censured by historians for the seizure of the former O'Byrne lands in County Wicklow, although it has also been argued that his behaviour was no worse than that of his partner in the transaction, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who proceeded to swindle Parsons out of his share.

In 1620, personally presenting to King James I surveys of escheated estates, in his capacity of surveyor-general, Parsons received the honour of knighthood, and was created a baronet on 10 November in the same year. He was a cousin by marriage of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, the dominant Anglo-Irish magnate of his time, to whom he was close. He was sworn a member of the Privy Council of Ireland in 1623. During the years 1633–40, when Strafford was all-powerful in Ireland, Parsons prudently offered him no open opposition, but he came increasingly to dislike and distrust "that strange man....a mischief to so many".

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