Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/222

Marsh songs, symphonies, overtures, quartets, &c, and organ and pianoforte music.

 MARSH, JOHN FITCHETT (1818–1880), antiquary, son of a solicitor at Wigan, Lancashire, where he was born on 24 Oct. 1818, was educated at the Warrington grammar school under the Rev. T. Vere Bayne, and on the death of his father came under the care of his uncle, John Fitchett [q. v.], whom he afterwards succeeded in his business as a solicitor. On the incorporation of Warrington in 1847 he was appointed town-clerk, and held the office until 1858. He was instrumental in establishing the Warrington School of Art and the Public Museum and Library. He contributed to the Chetham Society in 1851 'Papers connected with John Milton and his Family,' based on documents in his own possession. To the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire he contributed several articles: 1. 'On some Correspondence of Dr. Priestley,' 1855. 2. 'Notice of the Inventory of the Effects of Mrs. Milton, Widow of the Poet,' 1855. 3. 'History of Boteler's Free Grammar School at Warrington,' 1856. 4. 'On the engraved Portraits and pretended Portraits of Milton,' 1860. 5. 'On Virgil's Plough,' 1803. In 1855 he delivered a series of interesting lectures on the 'Literary History of Warrington during the Eighteenth Century,' which were published in a volume of 'Warrington Mechanics' Institution Lectures.' In the same year he published a lecture on the 'Parthenon and the Elgin Marbles,'

He removed in 1873 to Hardwick House, Chepstow, Monmouthshire. There he employed a part of his leisure in collecting materials for a history of the castles of Monmouthshire. He had scarcely completed that of the first, when he died, unmarried, on 24 June 1880. His 'Annals of Chepstow Castle' were edited by Sir John Maclean, and printed at Exeter in 1883, 4to. His large library, which included that of his uncle, Mr. Fitchett, was sold at Sotheby's in May 1882.  MARSH, NARCISSUS (1638–1713), archbishop of Armagh, was born on 20 Dec. 1638, as he himself relates, at Hannington, near Cricklade, Wiltshire, but the family originally belonged to Kent. His father, William Marsh, lived on his estate of over 60l. a year, out of which he contrived to give a very good education to three sons and two daughters His mother was Grace Colburn, 'of an honest family in Dorsetshire,' Narcissus went first to Mr. Lamb's private school at Highworth, near his birthplace, and afterwards to four successive masters or tutors in the neighbourhood. He records with pride that he was never flogged. He was admitted to Magdalen Hall, Oxford, 25 July 1655. During his whole undergraduate career he kept 'an entire fast every week, from Thursday, six o'clock at night, until Saturday, eleven at noon, for which God's name be praised.' He graduated B. A. 12 Feb. 1657-8. On 30 June 1658 he was elected a Wiltshire fellow of Exeter, became M.A. in July 1660, B.D. in 1667, and D.D. in June 1671. He was incorporated in the same degrees at Cambridge in 1678. Being presented to the living of Swindon, he was ordained both deacon and priest in 1662, though under the canonical age, by Skinner, bishop of Oxford — 'the Lord forgive us both, but then I knew no better but that it might legally be done.' He resigned this preferment in 1663, when he found that his patron expected him to make a simoniacal marriage.

Marsh's first sermon was delivered in St. Mary '8, Oxford, in 1664, and in the same year he preached at the annual Fifth of November thanksgiving. He was chaplain to Seth Ward, successively bishop of Exeter and of Salisbury, and afterwards to Lord-chancellor Clarendon. In 1606 he was a pro-proctor, extra discipline being required during the residence of the court at Oxford. As a Wiltshire man, Clarendon made a fruitless promise to provide for Marsh. The young scholar lived on at Oxford upon his fellowship, and Wood notes that he had a weekly musical party in his college-rooms (Life and Times, ed. Clark, i. 274-5). He refused the appointment of domestic chaplain to Lord-keeper Bridgeman, and worked for Beveridge and others without immediate acknowledgment. Being in favour both with the Duke of Ormonde and with Dr. Fell, he was made principal of St. Alban Hall in May 1673. He made the hall 'flourish,' according to Wood, 'keeping up a severe discipline and a weekly meeting for music ' (ib. ii. 264 ; cp. p. 468). The same patrons secured his appointment to the provostship of Trinity College, Dublin, where he was sworn in 24 Jan. 1678-9.

Marsh found his studies too much interrupted by the business of his office. The undergraduates came up with little previous education, 'whereby they are both rude and ignorant, and I was quickly weary of 340 