upon (cf. Marryat's letter printed in Notes and Queries, 7th ser. ii. 123-4, from Bodl. MS. Add. C. 89, ff. 247-8).
Marryat soon abandoned all thought of the ministry, and went to Edinburgh, where he commenced student in physic and graduated M.D. For a while he sought practice in London, but in 1762 made a tour of continental medical schools, and subsequently visited America, obtaining practice where he could. On his return in 1766 he resided for several years in Antrim and the northern parts of Ireland. It was his habit to set apart two hours every day to nonpaying patients that he might watch the effect of his prescriptions on them. He was accustomed to administer enormous doses of drastic medicines regardless of the patient's constitution. For dysentery his favourite prescription was paper boiled in milk. The poorer class had, however, so high an opinion of his skill that they brought dying persons to him in creels. In February 1774 he migrated to Shrewsbury, but finally settled in Bristol about 1785. Here he delivered a course of lectures on therapeutics which was well attended. To bring himself into notice he published a book called 'The Philosophy of Masons,' a work so heterodox in opinion and licentious in language as to offend his best friends. His good fortune, rather than his skill, in restoring to health some patients who had been given up by other doctors gained him a reputation which quickly enabled him to keep his carriage; but his improvident habits reduced him eventually to poverty. When he found his boon companions dropping off, he fixed a paper upon the glass of the Bush coffee-room inquiring 'if any one remembered that there was such a person as Thomas Marryat,' and reminding them that he 'still lived, or rather existed, in Horfield Road,' In the midst of his distress he persistently refused assistance from his relations.
Marryat died on 29 May 1792, and was buried in the ground belonging to the chapel in Lewin's Mead, in Brunswick Square, Bristol. His personal appearance was plain to repulsiveness, his manners were disagreeably blunt, and latterly morose; but he is represented as a man of inflexible integrity and of genuine kindness, especially to the poor. He had much of the habits and manners of an empiric, and was consequently suspected by his more orthodox professional brethren.
Marryat's first work was entitled 'Medical Aphorisms, or a Compendium of Physic, founded on irrefragible principles,' 8vo, Ipswich, 1756 or 1757, much of which he subsequently saw fit to retract. This was followed by his 'Therapeutics, or a New Practice of Physic,' which he 'humbly inscribed to everybody.' It was first published in Latin in 1758 and reprinted in Dublin in 1764; after which a publisher named Dodd issued two spurious copies, one in Cork, dated 1770, and another in London in 1774. The fourth edition, a handsomely printed quarto, was issued at Shrewsbury, under Marryat's supervision, in 1775. A pocket edition, with the title of 'The Art of Healing,' attained great popularity, the twentieth impression having appeared at Bristol in 1805. Prefixed to it is a life of Marryat, with his portrait engraved by Johnson, and autograph.
Marryat also amused himself by writing verse. A new edition of his 'Sentimental Fables for the Ladies,' republished from an Irish copy, appeared at Bristol in 1791. It was dedicated to Hannah More, and had a large sale.
[Life prefixed to Marryat's Art of Healing, 20th ed.; Marryat's Works; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
MARSDEN, JOHN BUXTON (1803–1870), historical writer, born at Liverpool in 1803, was admitted sizar of St. Jonn's College, Cambridge, on 10 April 1823 (College Admission Register), and graduated B.A. in 1827, M.A. in 1830. He was ordained in 1827 to the curacy of Burslem, Staffordshire, whence he removed to that of Harrow, Middlesex. From 1833 to 1844 he held the rectory of Lower Tooting, Surrey, during the minority of his successor, R. W. Greaves, and from 1844 to 1851 he was vicar of Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. In 1851 he became perpetual curate of St. Peter, Dale End, Birmingham. Marsden was a sensible, liberal-minded clergyman. At a meeting of the clergy at Aylesbury on 7 Dec. 1847 to protest against the appointment of Renn Dickson Hampden [q. v.] to the see of Hereford, he moved an amendment, and in a vigorous speech (printed in 1848) denounced the unfair treatment of Dr. Hampden. For five years before his death ill-health incapacitated him from engaging in active duty of any kind. He died on 16 June 1870 at 37 Highfield Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham (Guardian, 22 June 1870, p. 724).
Marsden was author of three very meritorious works, entitled:
- 'The History of the Early Puritans, from the Reformation to the Opening of the Civil War in 1642,' 8vo, London, 1850.
- 'The History of the Later Puritans, from the Opening of the Civil War to 1662,' 8vo, London, 1852 (cf. Gardiner and Mullinger, Introd. to
