John Clark Marshman

2026-01-29T19:19:03Z

73.88.56.20:

{{Short description|English journalist and historian (1794–1877)}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_suffix = [[Order of the Star of India|CSI]]
| image = John.C.Marshman.jpg
| caption = Portrait by [[Colesworthey Grant]] (1859)
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1794|08|18|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Bristol]], England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1877|07|08|1794|08|18|df=y}}
| death_place = [[London]], England
| occupation = Journalist, historian
| parents = [[Joshua Marshman]] (father){{br}}[[Hannah Marshman]] (mother)
}}

{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}

'''John Clark Marshman''' (18 August 1794 – 8 July 1877) was an English journalist and historian. He was editor and publisher of the Calcutta-based ''Friend of India'', and was involved with several other Indian publications.

==Early life==
Marshman was the first child of [[Joshua Marshman]] and [[Hannah Marshman]] and was born on 18 August 1794<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Buckland|first=Charles Edward|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryindia00unkngoog|title=Dictionary of Indian Biography|publisher=Swan Sonnenschein & Co.|year=1906|location=London|pages=276|chapter=Marshman, John Clark|oclc=5190365|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryindia00unkngoog/page/n292}}</ref> at [[Bristol]], England where his father was at that time a [[schoolmaster]], before later emigrating to India as a missionary.

==Move to India==
At the age of 5, Marshman travelled with his parents and [[William Ward (missionary)|William Ward]] on an American ship called the ''Criterion'' to [[Bengal]], arriving in [[Serampore]] on Sunday morning, 13 October 1799.

In May 1800, his parents opened two [[boarding schools]] in [[Serampore]]; these became the most popular in the area and Marshman received his education from his parents. He was part of the growing mission family, eating at the communal table and joining with other children in Mission life; as a result he became a fluent [[Bengali language|Bengali]] speaker.

==Achievements==
In April 1818, Marshman, together with his father Joshua, launched the first monthly magazine in [[Bengali language|Bengali]], ''[[Digdarshan]]'', which focused on educative information for the youth, and very shortly thereafter the weekly news magazine ''[[Samachar Darpan]]'' which was one of the two first Bengali newspapers (the other being ''[[Bengal Gazetti]]'', published by [[Ganga Kishore Bhattacharya]], in the first half of 1818). Subsequently, the [[Serampore Mission]] also launched the weekly ''[[Friend of India]]'' in 1821, which became so popular that Serampore was synonymous with ''Friend of India'' in European minds for much of the 19th century. The printing operations were so successful that they acquired their own substantial buildings by the river just north of the Mission Chapel.

In 1875, ''Friend of India'' amalgamated with another paper ''[[The Englishman]]'', becoming [[The Statesman (India)|The Statesman]] which remains one of India's leading English-language dailies.

Marshman also started a new [[paper mill]] at the Mission to manufacture a special new type of paper that had been devised by the missionaries to resist the virulent ravages of the local [[white ant]]s. This became known as [[Serampore Paper]] and was used throughout the province.

In 1820, a steam engine was imported from Messrs. [[Thwaites and Rothwell]], of [[Bolton]], [[Lancashire]], for the paper mill and was the first ever seen in India. Marshman's father Joshua was mesmerised by it and watched closely as the engineer prepared it for use.

Marshman joined the staff of [[Serampore College]], which had been jointly founded by his father, in 1821.

In 1837, the last of the [[Serampore Trio]], his father [[Joshua Marshman]] died. Following his death [[John Mack (Serampore)|John Mack]] and Marshman struggled to carry on the work of the college, spending all their earnings and Marshman's income from his private concerns, including those from the paper mill. After he published ''The Friend of India'', he stipulated that the proceeds should go to the college. It was reckoned that in all he contributed more than £30,000.

As the struggle to maintain the college was getting more onerous each year to try and fund privately, Mack and Marshman decided to turn the college over to the [[Baptist Missionary Society]]. The Society was unwilling to take over the burden fully, but did offer to support a [[Theology|theological]] [[professor]] on the college staff.

Marshman later rather unwillingly accepted the position of Official Bengali Translator to the Government, and thereafter was abused almost daily in the native newspapers as "the hireling of the Government". His salary of £1,000 per annum was passed to the college.

==Return to England==
In 1855, Marshman planned to leave India for good. Mack and he proposed once again to pass control of the college to the Baptist Missionary Society; this time the proposal was accepted. He resigned his post as Official Bengali Translator to the Government and returned to England to [[Kensington Palace Gardens]].

Marshman was a student of Indian history and he wrote what was for many years the only history of Bengal. He was also long engaged on the writing of the history of India; his reading was very wide and he was a distinguished Oriental scholar. He studied Chinese (like his father) and knew the major Sanskrit poems. He also gave much attention to Persian.

In England, however, he was refused a seat on the [[Council of India]]. For his services to education, he was recognised by the granting of the [[Order of the Star of India|Star of India]] in 1868. To earn a living he became chairman of the Committee of Audit of the [[East Indian Railway]]. He made three unsuccessful attempts to obtain a seat in Parliament, for [[Ipswich (UK Parliament constituency)|Ipswich]] in 1857, [[Harwich (UK Parliament constituency)|Harwich]] in 1859, and [[Marylebone (UK Parliament constituency)|Harwich]] in 1861.

On his death it is said that he had known as much about Indian affairs as if he had been the personal assistant to four successive Viceroys. He died at Radcliffe Square, North [[Kensington]], on 8 July 1877<ref name=":0" /> and is buried in [[Brompton Cemetery]].

==Works==
* An abridged version of Carey's ''Dictionary of the Bengali Language'', pub. 1827.
*{{Cite book|last=Marshman|first=John Clark|url=http://wbsl.gov.in/bookReader.action?bookId=16496|title=Guide Book For Moonsiffs, Sudder Ameens And Principal Sudder Ameens Containing All The Rules Necessary For The Conduct Of Suits In Their Courts Extracted From The Regulations Of Government, And Methodically Arranged|publisher=Serampore Press|year=1832}}
* ''Guide to Revenue Regulations of the Presidencies of Bengal and Agra'', pub. 1835
* ''The History of India from remote Antiquity to the Accession of the Mogul Dynasty'', pub. 1842
*{{Cite book|last=Marshman|first=John Clark|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.221846|title=Guide to the Civil Law of the Presidency of Fort William|publisher=Serampore Press|year=1848|edition=2}}
*{{Cite book|last=Marshman|first=John Clark|url=https://archive.org/details/howwarsariseini00marsgoog|title=How Wars Arise in India: Observations on Mr. Cobden's Pamphlet, entitled, "The Origin of the Burmese War"|publisher=Wm. H. Allen & Co.|year=1853|location=London}}
* {{Cite book|last=Marshman|first=John Clark|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeandtimescar00marsgoog|title=The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward|publisher=Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts|year=1859|volume=I|location=London}}
* {{Cite book|last=Marshman|first=John Clark|url=https://archive.org/details/lifetimesofcarey02mars|title=The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward|publisher=Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts|year=1859|volume=II|location=London}}
*{{cite book|last=Marshman|first=John Clark|url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsmajorgen01marsgoog|title=Memoirs of Major-General Sir Henry Havelock, K.C.B|publisher=Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts|year=1860|location=London|author-link=John Clark Marshman}}
*{{Cite book|last=Marshman|first=John Clark|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofindiafr01marsuoft/|title=The History of India from the Earliest Period to the Close of Lord Dalhousie's Administration|publisher=Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer|year=1869|volume=I|location=London}} A transcription is available [http://www.ibiblio.org/britishraj/Marshman.html online].
*{{Cite book|last=Marshman|first=John Clark|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofindiafr02marsuoft|title=The History of India from the Earliest Period to the Close of Lord Dalhousie's Administration|publisher=Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer|year=1869|volume=II|location=London}} A transcription is available [http://www.ibiblio.org/britishraj/Marshman.html online].
*{{Cite book|last=Marshman|first=John Clark|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofindiafr03marsuoft|title=The History of India from the Earliest Period to the Close of Lord Dalhousie's Administration|publisher=Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer|year=1869|volume=III|location=London}} A transcription is available [http://www.ibiblio.org/britishraj/Marshman.html online].
*{{Cite journal|last=Marshman|first=John Clark|date=1862|title=Notes on the Production of Tea in Assam, and in India Generally|journal=[[The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland]]|volume=19|pages=315–320|doi=10.1017/S0035869X0015659X|jstor=25228722|jstor-access=free|url=https://zenodo.org/record/2083178}}
*{{Cite journal|last=Marshman|first=John Clark|date=1862|title=Notes on the Cultivation of Cotton in the District of Dharwar; Past, Present, and Future|journal=[[The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland]]|volume=19|pages=351–360|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00156631|jstor=25228726|jstor-access=free|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1742888}}
*{{Cite journal|last=Marshman|first=John Clark|date=1863|title=On the Cost and Construction of the Railways in India|journal=[[The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland]]|volume=20|pages=397–405|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00165360|jstor=25581258|jstor-access=free|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1716487}}

== Honours ==

* Companion of the [[Order of the Star of India]] (1868).<ref name=":0" />

==Bibliography==
*{{Cite DNB|no-icon=1|wstitle=Marshman, John Clark}}
*{{cite book |author=Sunil Kumar Chatterjee |year=2001 |title=John Clark Marshman: (a trustworthy friend of India) |publisher=Mahamaya Sahitya Mandir |oclc=51228078}}

==See also==
*[[Arthur AJ Marshman]]

== References ==
<references />
{{Protestant missions to India}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshman, John Clark}}
[[Category:1794 births]]
[[Category:1877 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian journalists]]
[[Category:Baptist missionaries in India]]
[[Category:English Baptist missionaries]]
[[Category:19th-century Baptists]]
[[Category:19th-century English people]]
[[Category:English Indologists]]
[[Category:British people in British India]]
[[Category:British missionaries in India]]

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John Clark Marshman