Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/217

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Marsh
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Marsh

was a heretic, burnt like a heretic, and was a firebrand in hell. Foxe prints several impressive letters after the manner of the apostolic epistles, written by Marsh to the people of Langton, Manchester, and elsewhere. These letters were long treasured by the puritans of Lancashire. The influence which his character and sufferings exerted is attested by the marvellous traditions that prevailed among the common people. One of them was that an impression of a man's foot on a stone step at Smithells Hall was made by Marsh when asserting his innocence of heresy. Nathaniel Hawthorne, who visited Smithells Hall in 1855, introduces the legend of the 'Bloody Footstep' in 'Septimius' and some other stories (cf. Roby, Traditions of Lancashire).

[Foxe's Acts and Monuments (the particulars about Marsh were reprinted at Bolton, 1787, and in A. Hewlett's George Marsh, 1844); Fuller's Worthies; Cooper's Athenaæ Cantabr. i. 126; Lancashire Church Goods (Chetham Soc.), cvii. 28; Ormerod's Cheshire, ed, Helsby, i. 235; Nathaniel Hawthorne's English Note Books, i. 291.]

C. W. S.

MARSH, Sir HENRY (1790–1860), physician, was son of the Rev. Robert Marsh and his wife Sophia Wolseley, a granddaughter of Sir Thomas Molyneux, M.D. [q. v.], and was descended from Francis Marsh [q. v.], archbishop of Dublin in the reign of William III. He was born at Loughrea, co. Galway, in 1790, entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated B.A. in 1812, and then studied for holy orders. About 1814, however, he gave up the study of theology for that of medicine. He meant to be a surgeon, and was apprenticed to Sir Philip Crampton [q. v.], but in 1818 lost part of his right hand, owing to a dissecting wound, and thenceforward took to the medical side of his profession. On 13 Aug. 1818 he received the license of the Irish College of Physicians, and then studied in Paris. On his return to Dublin in 1820 he was elected assistant physician to Steevens Hospital, and in 1827 professor of medicine at the Dublin College of Surgeons. His private practice soon became large, and in 1832 compelled him to give up his professorship. He became a fellow of the King's and Queen's College of Physicians 29 Oct. 1839, and in 1840 graduated M.D. in the university of Dublin. In 1841, 1842, 1845, and 1846 he was president of the Irish College of Physicians. He was made physician in ordinary to the queen in Ireland in 1837, and in 1839 was created a baronet. He was an admirable clinical teacher, but his writings are deficient in lucidity. He published in 1822 ‘Cases of Jaundice with Dissections,’ and in 1838, 1839, and 1842 papers on ‘The Evolution of Light from the Living Human Subject.’ His ‘Clinical Lectures delivered in Steevens Hospital’ were edited in 1867 by Dr. James Stannus Hughes. He also wrote numerous papers in the ‘Dublin Hospital Reports’ and ‘Dublin Journal of Medical Science.’ Marsh died, after an illness of three hours, at his house in Merrion Square, Dublin, 1 Dec. 1860, and was buried in Mount Jerome cemetery. He married twice. Both his wives were widows. Mrs. Arthur, the first, bore him one son, who died a colonel in the army without issue.

A statue of Sir Henry, executed by Foley, is in the King's and Queen's College of Physicians in Dublin.

[Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography, 1878; Dublin University Magazine, No. 57; Dublin Medical Press, 2nd ser. 1860; Sir C. A. Cameron's Hist. of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, 1886; Works.]

N. M.

MARSH, HERBERT (1757–1839), bishop of Peterborough, son of Richard Marsh of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (B.A. 1731, M.A. 1756), vicar of Faversham, Kent, by Elizabeth his wife, was born at Faversham 10 Dec. 1757. He was educated first at Faversham school, and from 1770 at the King's School, Canterbury, under Dr. Osmund Beauvoir, i one of the first classical scholars of his day' (Brydges, Autobiog. i. 68; Nichols, Lit. Anecdotes, ix. 810). He was admitted king's scholar 4 March 1771. Among his schoolfellows were Charles Abbott [q. v.] (afterwards Chief-justice Tenterden) and William Frend [q. v.] On 29 Dec. 1774 he was entered as a pensioner at St. John's College, Cambridge, and was elected scholar in March 1775. He graduated B.A. in 1779 as second wrangler, and also obtained the second Smith's prize. His subsequent degrees were : M.A. 1782, B.D. 1792, D.D. (by royal mandate) 1808. He was elected junior fellow of St. John's 23 March 1779, and senior fellow 28 March 1797. In 1784 he zealously supported Pitt's candidature for the representation of the university of Cambridge in parliament. In 1785 he left Cambridge, travelled abroad, studied at Leipzig under J. D. Michaelis, and corresponded with Griesbach on the text of the New Testament. In 1792 he returned to Cambridge to take the B.D. degree required for the retention of his fellowship. On the prosecution in 1793 of his old schoolfellow and relative, William Frend, in the vice-chancellors court, for the publication of a seditious tract, he was summoned as a witness on the ground of his having communicated the ad-