Charles Marsh (1774?–1835) was an English barrister and politician.

Life

Born about 1774, he was a younger son of Edward Marsh, a

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

manufacturer, and received his education at the

Norwich School Norwich School (formally King Edward VI Grammar School, Norwich) is a selective English independent day school in the close of Norwich Cathedral, Norwich. Among the oldest schools in the United Kingdom, it has a traceable history to 1096 as a ...

under Dr. Forster. On 5 October 1792 he was admitted pensioner of

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

, but did not graduate. He became a student of

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

on 26 September 1791, was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

, and in 1804 went to

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, where he practised with success. On his return to England Marsh was elected Member of Parliament for

East Retford East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

in the

1812 United Kingdom general election The 1812 United Kingdom general election was the fourth general election to be held after the Union of Great Britain and Ireland. The fourth United Kingdom Parliament was dissolved on 29 September 1812. The new Parliament was summoned to meet o ...

, thanks to some bare-faced trickery in representing himself as the Whig candidate.historyofparliamentonline.org, ''Marsh, Charles (c.1774-1835).''
/ref> On 1 July 1813 he spoke in a committee of the House of Commons in support of the amendment, moved by Sir Thomas Sutton, on the clause in the East India Bill providing further facilities for persons to go out to India for religious purposes. He denounced the attempts of

William Wilberforce William Wilberforce (24 August 175929 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becom ...

and others to make Christian converts in India. His speech was described as "one of the most pointed and vigorous philippics in any language" in the ''

Quarterly Review The ''Quarterly Review'' was a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River ...

''. Marsh did not seek re-election at East Retford 1818, contesting

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes) ** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal e ...

unsuccessfully. He had money problems during the 1820s, and died in 1835.

Works

Marsh was a contributor to ''The Cabinet. By a Society of Gentlemen'', a Norwich periodical, published in volumes in 1795. He wrote also some pamphlets, including ''An Appeal to the Public Spirit of Great Britain'', London, 1803, and ''A Review of some important Passages in the late Administration of Sir George Hilaro Barlow, Bart., at Madras'', London, 1813. His speech on the East India Bill was printed in pamphlet form in 1813, and also in vol. ii. of ''The Pamphleteer'' (1813). He is also the reputed author of two volumes of gossip, ''The Clubs of London; with Anecdotes of their Members, Sketches of Character, and Conversations'', London, 1828, although recent scholarship suggests that Scottish writer

Colin Mackenzie Colonel Colin Mackenzie CB (1754–8 May 1821) was Scottish army officer in the British East India Company who later became the first Surveyor General of India. He was a collector of antiquities and an orientalist. He surveyed southern India, ...

may be the true author of this work. Some of the anecdotes had already appeared in the ''

New Monthly Magazine ''The New Monthly Magazine'' was a British monthly magazine published from 1814 to 1884. It was founded by Henry Colburn and published by him through to 1845. History Colburn and Frederic Shoberl established ''The New Monthly Magazine and Univer ...

'', to which Marsh contributed. The ''Letters of Vetus'' in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' (1812) have been attributed incorrectly to Marsh. They were written by Edward Sterling.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Marsh, Charles 1774 births 1835 deaths English barristers Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Politicians from Norwich UK MPs 1812–1818 People educated at Norwich School Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge