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- Son of Rev. Jonathan Marsh and Margaret Whiting
First Generation
1. Rev. Jonathan MARSH was born on 1 Jan 1714 in Windsor, Hartford,
Connecticut. He died in 1794 in New Hartford, Litchfield, Connecticut. John
Marsh of Hartford, CT; Marsh Genealogy 1636 - 1895; Compiled by Dwight
Whitney Marsh of Amherst, Mass. Published by Press of Carpenter & Marebouse,
Amherst, Mass, 1895. p. 313.
Graduated at Yale college 1735, ordained and settled Oct., 1739, at New
Hartford, Ct., where he remained pastor between 54 and 55 years until his
death. The family of Rev. Jonathan and his descendants need to be carefully
distinguished from those of his father's cousin Capt. Jonathan son of John,
John. Both were of New Hartford, the Capt. one of the very first settlers,
the parson the first minister settled there. When his house was built, about
1740, Rev. Mr. Marsh told the men present that they must cut away the white
birches between there and Mr. Israel Loomis' house before they could have
anything to eat or drink as he wanted to see his nearest neighbor's house.
They fell to, cut the way clear and had the refreshments including a good
supply of rum. He had a slave who did his house and farm work. This Negro,
named Moses, set out an orchard of some fifty apple trees which was always
called "Moses Orchard." Father Marsh as was customary in those days,
considered a little stimulant essential to health of farm laborers,
especially in haying. Yet he was a thoughtful man and knew that these
stimulants sometimes bite like an adder. One day he gave Moses a bottle
containing a moderate quantity of cider brandy and to divert his attention
from the quantity to the quality told him that is was very old. Moses took
the bottle, held it up to the light and with a disappointed wink replied,
"Yes, Massa, but berry small of his age. " He told Mr. Tucker one day "It
would be no sin to worship your drag for it is 'like nothing in the heavens
above or the earth beneath.'" Rev. Jonathan Marsh was twice married. He had
a little book in which he thus recorded his two marriages.
This little book now more than 150 years old, in which he kept some or all
his church records, has a curious history. John F. Marsh, Esq. of Hartford,
1893, thus describes it: "Someone came across it in Washington D.E. and sent
it to Hon. Origen S. Seymour, connected with the Marsh family. He presented
it to the corporation of Memorial Hall, Hartford, where I found it. It is
bound in leather, is about six by four inches in size and less than an inch
in thickness. The cover is off and the leaves all loose. The work is finely
and closely written How it got to Washington is a mystery."
Of his first
wife who had six children the following record is significant. "Her child,
Elizabeth, was born May 10, baptized 15. She d. of a Sab. morning Mary 20,
1749, ae about 30 years." He had twelve children, of whom seven were
daughters and five sons, and all but one son grew up, and ten were married.
His second wife Marianna Keith was a young widow with two daughters one of
whom m. William Ellery, a prominent merchant of Hartford, and became
grandmother of Thomas H. Seymour, governor of Connecticut and minister to
Russia.
The following pen portrait is by Rev. Frederick M. Marsh, who lived to be
92. "Mr. Marsh was above medium height and size of men, well proportioned,
grave and venerable in appearance, of a social turn of mind, and accustomed
to wear a large wig. He was settled on the halfway plan; was Arminian in his
theological views. In his preaching, as I remember him, when about fourteen
years old, was not animated, and as it seemed to me, never earnest and
rousing. I remember to have been seriously affected on seeing and hearing
him address the people on funeral occasions." A fac simile of his signature
is found in the History of Hartford county, vol. 2, p. 540. His salary was
100 pounds to be increase 10 pounds a year till it became 150 pounds. He was
given choice of pews. Indians were allowed in the church only on town
pleasure. There was "suitable preparation of liqueur" for meeting house
"raising." During 55 years of ministry he never attended the Hartford North
Consociation. As did most of the Connecticut ministers in 1741 and 1744, he
opposed Whitfield.
BIRTH: Also shown as Born Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut, United States.
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1714 - 1783 (69 years)