Edward Garrard Marsh Explained

Edward Garrard Marsh (1783–1862)^[1] was an English poet and Anglican clergyman.

Life

He was son of the composer John Marsh.^[2] He was a good friend of William Hayley, and associated with him and William Blake.^[3]

Marsh studied at Wadham College, Oxford, and on graduating became a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. He was a curate at Nuneham, and then bought a chapel in Hampstead. He became Residentiary Canon at Southwell. He was vicar of Sandon, Hertfordshire and then Aylesford, Kent.^[4] He was Bampton Lecturer in 1848.

At 7 July 1813 Marsh married Lydia Williams (Gosport, England, 17 January 1788 - 13 December 1859) at Southwell, England. She was a sister of Rev. Henry Williams and Rev. William Williams.^[5] Their grandfather Rev. Thomas Williams was a Congregational minister.

While he had connections to non-conformist family members, Marsh's beliefs followed that of low church evangelical Anglicanism.^[6] He was also from 1821 a prebendary of Woodborough, Nottinghamshire,^[7] an office suppressed in 1841 by the Church Commissioners. In 1836 he was the vicar of Aylesford, Kent.^[8]

He was a member of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and was described as 'influential' in the decision of Henry Williams and William Williams to convert to Anglicanism in February 1818,^[6] and then to join the CMS.^[9]

The South Africa and Patagonia missionary Allen Francis Gardiner's second wife, Elizabeth Lydia, was Marsh's daughter.^[10]

Works

• The Book of Psalms translated into English Verse (1832)
• Two Hundred and Ten Psalms and Hymns, arranged in three series (1837)
• Account of the Slavery of Friends in the Barbary States, towards the close of the seventeenth century (1848, primarily a selection from the letters of George Fox)
• The Christian Doctrine of Sanctification : considered in eight sermons preached before the University of Oxford as the Bampton Lecture for the year 1848 (1848)

Literature

• Robert N. Essick, "Blake, Hayley, and Edward Garrard Marsh: 'An Insect of Parnassus.'" Explorations: The Age of Enlightenment. Special Series 1 (1987): 58-84.
• Ed. Brian Robins, "The John Marsh Journals: The Life and Times of Gentleman Composer (1752-1828)", Stuyvesant, NJ (1998 and 2011)

Notes and References

1. http://genealogy.eproject.co.nz/fam/fam01155.html genealogy
2. 1750-1828: Concise Dictionary of National Biography.
3. See G.E. Bentley, Jr., The Stranger from Paradise: A Biography of William Blake, especially pp.227-230.
4. http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document/1874_-_Carleton%2C_H._The_Life_of_Henry_Williams%2C_%5BVol._I._%5D?action=null Carleton, Hugh – The life of Henry Williams, Archdeacon of Waimate
5. http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/W/WilliamsHenry/WilliamsHenry/en biography of Henry Williams
6. Web site: Harvey-Williams . Nevil . The Williams Family in the 18th and 19th Centuries - Part 1. March 2011. 21 December 2013.
7. Web site: Location: Collegiate Stall: Southwell Minster, Prebend Of Woodborough. 14 January 2017.
8. News: Gardiner, Allen Francis . Boase . George . . 7 June 2020. London: Smith, Elder & Co . 1911. 20. 410 .
9. "From about 1816 he (Henry Williams) came under the tutelage of his evangelical brother-in-law, Edward Marsh". biography of Henry Williams
10. http://anglicanhistory.org/sa/gardiner/marsh/01.html Gardiner