Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Marshall, Thomas (soldier)

MARSHALL, Thomas, soldier, b. in Boston, Mass., in 1718; d. in Weston, Mass., 18 Nov., 1800. His father, Capt. Christopher Marshall, was an officer in the British service, and assisted in the capture of Louisburg in 1746. The son commanded the ancient and honorable artillery company of Boston in 1763-'7. In 1765 he was major of a Boston regiment, and from 1767 till 1771 lieutenant-colonel. In a petition to Gov. Thomas Hutchinson he asks for a grant of land, and speaks of the “great expense his father was at in raising troops for the expedition, which exceeded the whole of his pay, and the greater part of which the said Thomas Marshall had to advance for his father to the great damage of his business.” He was a merchant-tailor in King (now State) street before the Revolutionary war, in which he commanded the 10th Massachusetts regiment, and did efficient service at Saratoga in 1777. In a petition to the legislature Col. Marshall says that “at the evacuation of Ticonderoga we lost most of our clothing in the retreat,” but though an order was given by the court for the board of war to make up these losses, there were so many other claims that it was not done. After the war he purchased the confiscated estate of a Tory in Weston, Mass., which is now the country-seat of Gen. Charles J. Paine. Thomas's younger brother, Christopher, was a captain in his regiment.