A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Marshall, John
MARSHALL, Kt., C.B., K.C.H., K.S.G., K.S.S. (Captain, 1814.)
Sir John Marshall, born in 1785, is descended trom a family of considerable antiquity.
This officer entered the Navy, 13 Feb. 1800, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Aurora 28, Capt. Thos. Gordon Caulfeild; and in the course of the next month attained the rating of Midshipman. Removing in March, 1802, after an intermediate servitude on the Lisbon and Mediterranean stations, to the Latona 38, Capt. Frank Sotheron, he was for seven months employed in that ship in the Channel and Baltic. Being again, in April, 1803, placed under the orders of Capt. Caulfeild in the Grampus 50, he cruized for some time on the Guernsey station, and then sailed for the East Indies, where, in Dec. 1805, he followed the same officer, as Master’s Mate, into the Russell 74. In Oct. 1806 Mr. Marshall was nominated by Sir Edw. Pellew Acting-Lieutenant of his flag-ship the Culloden 74, in which, on 27 of the ensuing month, he contributed to the capture and destruction of a Dutch frigate, seven brigs of war, and about 20 armed and other merchant-vessels in Batavia Roads. In the spring of 1807 he went back, in the capacity last mentioned, to his former ship the Russel, still commanded by Capt. Caulfeild, with whom he continued, latterly under the flag of Rear-Admiral Wm. O’Brien Drury, until compelled by ill health to invalid in Feb. 1809. His next appointment we find was, 24 Oct. in the latter year, to the Aboukir 74, Capt. Geo. Parker, then attached to the Walcheren expedition. On 24 Oct. 1812, up to which period he had been serving in the North Sea and Baltic, part of the time under the flag of Rear-Admiral Thos. Byam Martin, and latterly in charge of a gun-boat at the defence of Riga, Mr. Marshall was promoted to the command of the Procris sloop, on the East India station, whither he took a passage in the Java of 46 guns and 377 men, Capt. Henry Lambert. It was his consequent misfortune to be present on board that frigate 23 Dec. 1812, when she was captured, after a close and terrific action of three hours and 40 minutes, and a loss of 22 men killed and 102 (including the Captain mortally) wounded, by the American ship Constitution of 55 guns and 480 men, many of whom suffered. His exertions and the advice he afforded throughout the contest were particularly acknowledged in the despatches of the senior surviving officer, the present Capt. Henry Ducie Chads.[1] On 11 Nov. 1813 Capt. Marshall was invested with the command of the Shamrock brig; and on joining that vessel off Cuxhaven he was ordered higher up the Elbe, with a detachment of gun-boats under his orders, for the purpose of watching the enemy at Gluckstadt until the arrival there of the Swedish troops under the Baron de Boyé. The zeal he subsequently displayed in the arduous operations which terminated in its surrender to the allied forces called forth the official thanks of the late Sir Arthur Farquhar, who commanded the naval force employed in the attack.[2] On 9 Jan. 1814, four days after the event last mentioned had taken place, the Shamrock entered the haven of Gluckstadt, and took possession of the Danish flotilla found in it, consisting of one brig and seven gunboats. Her commander was then despatched to Kiel, in order to establish the claims of the British squadron to the enemy’s vessels, naval stores, &c., taken in the Elbe. He next assisted at the blockade of Hamburg and Haarburg. The importance indeed of Capt. Marshall’s services on the German rivers was fully acknowledged by his being advanced to Post rank 7 June, 1814; created, in the early part of 1815, a Knight of the highest Russian Military Order of St. George and of the Swedish Military Order of the Sword, and a C.B. 4 June in the same year. In Jan. 1826 he was selected to fill the office of Superintendent of Lazarettos at Milford; and, about Jan. 1827, of the Quarantine establishment at Standgate Creek. William IV., in June, 1832, invested him with the insignia of a K.C.H., and also conferred on him the honour of Knighthood. His last appointment was, 18 Aug. 1841, to the Isis 44, fitting for the Cape of Good Hope, whence he returned home and was paid off at the commencement of 1845; in April of which year he had the satisfaction of receiving a letter of thanks from the Committee at Lloyd’s for the great attention he had paid during his recent command to the interests of the mercantile community generally, but especially for the arrangements he had made for the preservation of peace and the furtherance of trade at Icheboe.
Sir John Marshall married, a second time, 17 Sept. 1828, Augusta Eliza, youngest daughter of John Wynne, Esq., of Garthmeillo, co. Denbigh, and grand-daughter of the Rev. S. Parr, D.D., Prebendary of St. Paul’s. His eldest daughter, Frances Orris, is married to Martin Hadsley Gosselin, Esq., only son of Admiral T. Le M. Gosselin; and his third, Louisa Phillips, to Capt. Geo. Black, of the Royal Canadian Rifles. Agents – Burnett and Holmes.