Edward Garrard Marsh was an English poet and Anglican clergyman.

He was son of the composer John Marsh

John Marsh (composer)

John Marsh was an English music composer, born in Dorking, England. A lawyer by training, he is known to have written at least 350 compositions, including at least 39 symphonies...

. He was a good friend of William Hayley

William Hayley

William Hayley was an English writer, best known as the friend and biographer of William Cowper.-Biography:...

, and associated with him and William Blake

William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...

.

He studied at Wadham College, Oxford

Wadham College, Oxford

Wadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, located at the southern end of Parks Road in central Oxford. It was founded by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham, wealthy Somerset landowners, during the reign of King James I...

, and on graduating became a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. He was a curate at Nuneham, and then bought a chapel in Hampstead

Hampstead

Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...

. He became Residentiary Canon at Southwell

Southwell, Nottinghamshire

Southwell is a town in Nottinghamshire, England, best known as the site of Southwell Minster, the seat of the Church of England diocese that covers Nottinghamshire...

.
He was vicar of Sandon, Hertfordshire

Sandon, Hertfordshire

Sandon is a village and civil parish in the North Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. Sandon is located near the towns of Baldock and Buntingford. Sandon has a church called All Saints Church.- External links :*...

 and then Aylesford

Aylesford

Aylesford is a village and civil parish on the River Medway in Kent, 4 miles NW of Maidstone in England.Originally a small riverside settlement, the old village comprises around 60 houses, many of which were formerly shops. One pub, a Post Office and four small independent shops remain...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

.
He was Bampton Lecturer in 1848.

He was also from 1821 a prebend of Woodborough, an office suppressed in 1841 by the Church Commissioners

Church Commissioners

The Church Commissioners is a body managing the historic property assets of the Church of England. It was set up in 1948 combining the assets of Queen Anne's Bounty, a fund dating from 1704 for the relief of poor clergy, and of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners formed in 1836...

.

He was a member of the Church Missionary Society, described as 'influential'..

He had family connections with missionaries. At 7 July 1813 he married Lydia Williams (Gosport

Gosport

Gosport is a town, district and borough situated on the south coast of England, within the county of Hampshire. It has approximately 80,000 permanent residents with a further 5,000-10,000 during the summer months...

, England, 17 January 1788 - 13 December 1859) at Southwell, England. She was a sister of the New Zealand missionaries Henry Williams

Henry Williams (missionary)

Henry Williams was one of the first missionaries who went to New Zealand in the first half of the 19th century....

 and William Williams

William Williams (bishop)

William Williams was the first Anglican Bishop of Waiapu and the father and grandfather of two others. He led the CMS missionaries in the translation of the Bible into Māori and he published an early dictionary and grammar of the Māori language.-Early life:Williams was born in Nottingham to Thomas...

.

The South Africa and Patagonia missionary Allen Francis Gardiner

Allen Francis Gardiner

Allen Francis Gardiner was a British Royal Navy officer and missionary to Patagonia.-Biography:Gardiner was the fifth son of Samuel Gardiner of Coombe Lodge, Oxfordshire, by Mary, daughter of Charles Boddam of Capel House, Bull's Cross, Enfield, Middlesex...

's second wife was Marsh's daughter.

Works

• The Book of Psalms translated into English Verse (1832)
• Account of the slavery of Friends in the Barbary States, towards the close of the seventeenth century
• The Christian Doctrine of Sanctification (Bampton Lecture
  Bampton Lectures
  The Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford, England, were founded by a bequest of John Bampton,. They have taken place since 1780.They were a series of annual lectures; since the turn of the 20th century they have typically been biennial. They continue to concentrate on Christian theological...
  
  of 1848)

Literature

• Robert N. Essick, "Blake, Hayley, and Edward Garrard Marsh: 'An Insect of Parnassus.'" Explorations: The Age of Enlightenment. Special Series 1 (1987): 58-84.
• Ed. Brian Robins, "The John Marsh Journals: The Life and Times of Gentleman Composer (1752-1828)", Stuyvesant, NJ (1998)