Reproduced with permission from the West Monkton Parish Council’s Village News issue no 107, July-August 2017.
One of a series of articles by Anthony Pugh-Thomas, where, this time, he considers: the author of the Supplement to the Flora of Somerset, Rector of West Monkton and distinguished botanist.
The Rev. Edward Marshall was rector of West Monkton in the early years of the 20th century who in addition to his clerical duties was a botanist and a keen gardener. He was one of the long line of distinguished Anglican parsons who have contributed so much to gardening and botany starting with William Turner in the 16th and John Ray in the 17th century and continuing to the 21st century.
Marshall was born in Park Lane in 1858, educated at Marlborough College and Brasenose College, Oxford (where he was a Scholar), trained at Wells Theological College and ordained priest in 1885. He held a curacy at Witley, Surrey and in 1887, during his time there, he married Fanny Isabel Foster — a niece of the well-known Victorian watercolour painter Birket Foster.
Mrs Marshall was well known for her good humour, charm and tact. A devoted churchwoman she was active in parochial life and made good use of her musical ability at West Monkton by training the village choir and playing the church organ.
Marshall held various livings before becoming Rector of West Monkton in 1904, retiring in 1919 and dying shortly thereafter. He was a Fellow of the Linnaean Society and in 1911 was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Botanical society of Edinburgh “in recognition of his great services to British Botany”. He actively corresponded with leading botanists on the Continent. There is nothing to suggest that Marshall became interested in botany whilst at school, but there are lists in his journal, kept as an undergraduate, of plant species he noticed in Teesdale in 1883 and Dorset and Hampshire the following year. He first contributed to the Journal of Botany in 1885; he carried through the publication in 1899 of the “Flora of Kent” whose originator, Mr Hanbury, recorded that, “Had not his friend (Marshall) kindly consented to bring the critical portion up to date the Flora could not even now have appeared” and he went on to publish the “Supplement to the Flora of Somerset” in 1914 at the request of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society of whose Botanical section he was President. He prepared many herbarium specimens taking great care to spread out leaves and flowers to make perfect specimens that were neatly and exactly labelled. Many of his herbarium specimens were donated to National Herbaria and also to the Somersetshire Society where they are now preserved in the County Record Office.
Marshall was clearly very active and wasted no time; once, on returning from a visit to France but staying in Eastbourne for two hours, he made notes of 159 species! He would botanise whatever the weather- in Scotland, Ireland and England and in neighbouring European Countries and he, corresponded widely with fellow botanists in Great Britain and overseas.
In addition to being an active botanist Marshall was a keen gardener and his obituary in the Journal of Botany records that in the large grounds of the Rectory (now Glebe Court), that included, as they still do, ponds, a stream, lawns, vegetable and fruit gardens which he filled with “an astonishing variety of flowers…including some of chiefly botanical interest and many not commonly met with” – he constructed two rock gardens, but of those no trace remains. A room was set aside in the rectory to house his plants and books.
And what of the Man? He was a confirmed Tory and a man of strong views upon most subjects, and although difficult to shift once he had made up his mind he was regarded as a most pleasant companion. He was a moderate High Churchman and an active parish priest in a parish that then was large geographically but not numerically (as distinct from its ever increasing size now, as more and more houses fill in every available space).
The educated members of his flock enjoyed his sermons but others felt they were rather “too clever“ for their comprehension. He was ably assisted by his wife, a woman of great charm and tact, an unfailing sense of humour and a centre of parochial life.
Towards the end of his time at West Monkton, Marshall suffered from fits of depression that as time passed increased in frequency and intensity — and in the summer of 1918 he had a serious nervous breakdown fainting in the pulpit. Acting on medical advice he began to make arrangements for resigning as rector and planned to live at Tidenham, near Chepstow, but the death of his only brother and the illness of his wife deepened his depression and he died in November 1919, his own death, following closely that of his wife.
With thanks to the Linnaean Society for referring me to Mr Marshall’s obituary in The Journal of Botany. VoI.58. January 1920.