Anyone interested in Marsden family research will sooner or later be asked about the Royal Marsden Hospital in London and whether they are somehow related to its founder. John Marsden (131/255) has taken a particular interest in this remarkable man and tells his story below. This year is the bicentenary of William Marsden’s birth and John is actively pursuing the installation of a commemorative plaque at the site of William Marsden’s birth in Sheffield.
William Marsden, doctor of medicine, descended from a family of yeomen belonging to Cawthorne in Yorkshire. He was the eldest of eight children, born in August 1796 at No.3 Watsons Walk, Sheffield, where his father David was a victualler. Early in life he declined an offer of partnership in a Sheffield drug business and, disregarding his father’s wishes that he should remain in Sheffield, he went to London with the strong desire to become a surgeon.
At the age of 19 he left home and set off for London to study medicine, against his father’s wishes but encouraged by his grandfather. It was whilst travelling on the stagecoach to London that he met the girl who was to become his first wife, Betsy Ann, who was then aged 12. Her mother had recently died and her father was sending her to live with her aunt in London. It was to be another four years before William again saw Betsy Ann and fell in love with her; with her father’s consent she married William when she was 16.
On arrival in London William entered at St Bartholomew’s Hospital where he was brought under the influence of Dr Abernethy, and at the same time he served an apprenticeship to Mr Dale, a surgeon practising at the top of Holborn Hill. When Mr Dale died he left his practice equally divided between his nephew and William Marsden.
William obtained the membership of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on 27 April 1827. His inability later in that year to obtain the admission to a hospital of a girl of 18 years, whom he accidentally found on the steps of St Andrew’s churchyard almost dead of disease and starvation, turned his attention to the question of hospital relief. Relief was then granted only to those who could obtain a governor’s letter or could produce other evidence of being known to subscribers to these institutions.
This anomalous condition he sought to rectify by establishing in 1825 a small dispensary in Greville Street, Hatton Garden, to whose benefits the poor were admitted absolutely without formality. This institution at first met with great opposition; but in 1832 its value became widely recognised, owing to the fact that it alone, of all the London hospitals, received cholera patients.
In 1840 the Duke of Cambridge, in the name of a large body of subscribers, presented Dr Marsden with a handsome testimonial in recognition of the benefits he had conferred on the sick poor.
In 1843 the hospital was moved into Grays Inn Road, to a site previously occupied by the light horse volunteers of the City of London, a site which was afterwards purchased by the beneficence of wealthy friends, and upon it was built the Royal Free Hospital, Dr Marsden becoming its senior surgeon.
In 1851 Marsden opened a small house in Cannon Row, Westminster, for the reception of persons suffering from cancer. Within ten years the institution was moved to Brompton where it occupied an imposing block of buildings and was known as the Cancer Hospital.* It provided 120 beds and William Marsden was its senior surgeon.
Marsden enjoyed a large practice and throughout his life was a disciple of Dr Abernethy and followed his methods. Usually expectant in his treatment, he was sometimes so bold as to be heroic. He was a very acute observer. He died of bronchitis on 16 January 1867, and was buried in West Norwood Cemetery, London.
He was twice married and had one surviving son - Dr Alexander Marsden (born 1832) - by his first wife, Betsy Ann. After moving from Thavies’ Inn he lived for many years at 65 Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
* Later renamed the Royal Marsden Hospital.
Modified 1 April 2002