Author: Marshall, John
Biography:
MARSHALL, John (1783-1848: ancestry.co.uk)
No baptism can yet be established with any certainty and his parents remain unknown. The Cambridge registers record that he was from Derby. Further circumstantial evidence links him to Derby: Shireleb (1828) was printed in Derby; many subscribers to his later volume, The Druid’s Talisman: A Legend of the Peak. With Other Poems (1845) were from Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire; and the subject matter of the poem deals with mythologies of several Derbyshire towns--Buxton, Dove Dale, Matlock, Stony Middleton. His early education is unknown but a John Marshall of Derbyshire entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (Sizar 1800, matric. and Scholar 1801, Pensioner 1802, BA 1805). The CCEd records two John Marshalls around this time but they are probably the same person. It records the first being educated at Corpus and ordained deacon and priest in 1805. The second is simply recorded as curate of Long Whatton, Leicestershire from 1812. This John Marshall remained at All Saints, Long Whatton, until his death, aged 65, on 25 Apr. 1848, and was buried there on 1 May. His memorial records that he was curate for thirty-nine years, which is slightly longer than the CCEd entry would indicate. He never married and his will made many bequests of paintings and books to various friends but recorded no immediate family. Both Shireleb (1828) and The Druid’s Talisman (1845) record him as a graduate (A.B.) and curate of Long Whatton. Additional circumstantial proof that he was the Corpus graduate is that the Rev. John Dalby, of Queens’ College Cambridge (BA 1794, MA 1797), vicar of Castle Donnington, Leicestershire (1807-52) and rector of Long Whatton (1822-52), helped him revise The Druid’s Talisman (1845), took six copies, and was a beneficiary of his will. He is sometimes confused with the Rev. John Marshall (1796-1875), a Trinity College Dublin graduate (BA 1837) and headmaster of Darlington Grammar School. (1845-75). (ancestry.co.uk 20 Mar. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 20 Mar. 2023; CCEd 20 Mar. 2023; SJC 9 May 1848; GM July 1848, 101; Cambridge General Advertiser 30 Apr. 1845; Lancaster Gazette 30 Oct. 1875; Crockford’s Directory [1865], 422) AA