Author: Marshall, William Barrett
Biography:
MARSHALL, William Barrett (1803?-41: ancestry.co.uk)
He may possibly have been the William Barrett Marshall born on 16 Apr. 1803 and baptised on 12 May 1805 at Stoke Damerel, Devon, the son of Joseph and Rebecca Marshall. Given his later career as a naval surgeon and the naval connections of Plymouth, this is the most likely candidate, but there is no corroboration and his age at death is unknown. He signed the Preface for Tears for Pity (1823) from 9 Beaufort Row, Chelsea, and seems to have lived in that area of London for most of his life when not on active service. He published a paper on smallpox in 1839 from Cheyne’s (now Cheyne) Row, Chelsea. He married Anne McQueen Wilkie on 4 Mar. 1836 at Saint Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh. She died at Cheyne Row, Chelsea, on 17 Feb. 1841, aged 30, six weeks after having given birth. He was away on duty on the Niger Expedition of 1841 and her family arranged her burial in Edinburgh. He died of fever on the expedition onboard HMS Sondan in Aug. 1841. In addition to the volume of poems listed here, he was known for his prize-winning Essay on Medical Education (1827) and A Personal Narrative of Two Visits to New Zealand in His Majesty’s Ship Alligator in 1834 (1836) in which he served as assistant surgeon and had complex feelings about operations against Maoris, supporting missionary activity but not military action. (He also published, in Sydney, a wordlist in Maori to aid in language learning.) The Personal Narrative is still of interest to scholars of New Zealand history. (ancestry.co.uk 22 Jun. 2022; Scotland’s People 22 Jun. 2022; John Bull 20 Feb. 1841; Morning Post 21 Dec. 1841) AA