Author: Marsden, Joshua
Biography:
MARSDEN, Joshua (1777-1837: DCB)
For the benefit of Christian readers, Marsden told his own story up to 1800 in three autobiographical works, Grace Displayed (1813), Narrative of a Mission (1816), and the "Sketches" attached to Forest Musings (1821). His account can be confirmed and extended by public records. He was born in Warrington in Cheshire and baptised there on 19 Jan. 1777. His mother was a Scot, her first name Margaret and her surname possibly Murray, but no marriage record has been found. His father Joshua Marsden (1735-91) came from a respectable family but mismanaged his inheritance. He was a dyer. Marsden joined the navy; after some bad experiences he jumped ship in Wales and made his way back to England. He was converted to Wesleyan Methodism in 1798 and became first an itinerant preacher, then a missionary. He seems to have been not charismatic but kind and hard-working, and his missions to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (1800-8) and Bermuda (1808-12) were successful. He was ordained in New York in 1802. In 1804, he married Mary Seabury in Halifax; they had at least eight children, of whom five died in infancy. After leaving Bermuda, the family was detained in the US by the War of 1812 but they sailed in 1814 and Marsden resumed his circuit preaching. He died after "a short but severe illness" at his home, 26 Robert St., Hoxton, London, on 11 Aug. 1837 and was buried as a nonconformist on 18 Aug. at the City Road Chapel (Wesleyan). In Forest Musings there is the announcement of a forthcoming poem, "The Millenium," but it does not appear to have been published. (DCB 6 Jan. 2020; findmypast.com 25 Jan. 2025; Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette 2 Sept. 1837; Joshua Marsden, Grace Displayed) HJ
Other Names:
- J. M.