Colonel Benjamin MARSTON

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Son of Benjamin Marston, Esq. and Patience Rogers

Notes:

Name:
He graduated 1715 from Harvard College. Benjamin was in Ireland when his father died in 1719. "It appears after the death of his father he remained in Ireland, conducting all the business matters connected with the "Essex" (the brigatine owned by his father), with a degree of energy and capacity not often found in a young man of 22 years of age. The voyage turned out to be much more profitable than was expected, and much of the property that ad been sold or motgaged by his father was redeemed. He engaged in business at Salem as a merchant and gained a reputation among his fellow townsmen as a 'man of honorable motives and strict integrity of character.' He was chosen representative to the general court in 1727-28-29. Was High Sheriff of Essex til 1737, was Justice of General Session and common Pleas Courts." He was a colonel in the Massachusetts Militia, sheriff of Essex County and Judge of Sessions and the Court of Common Pleas in 1740. He devoted much of his time in Manchester to agricultural pursuits. He made his will on 23 apr 1754, which was proved on 17 July 1754. He left "a large estate including the Great and Little Misery Islands, for which he paid 516 pounds, 13 shillings and 9 pence. These islands were offered for sale by his son Benjamin in Dec 1770. A part of the income of the island he left for the purpose of Propogating the Gospel among the Indians." Benjamin Marston Watson was the 2nd great grandson of Governor Thomas and Dorothy (Yorke) Dudley of royal and noble ancestry.

Benjamin married Elizabeth WINSLOW on 20 Nov 1729 in Marshfield, Massachusetts. Elizabeth (daughter of Isaac WINSLOW and Sarah WENSLEY) was born on 13 Dec 1707 in Marshfield, Plymouth Co., Massachusetts; was christened on 22 Feb 1707/8 in First Church, Marshfield, Massachusetts; died on 20 Sep 1761/2 in Salem, Essex Co., Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Benjamin married Mehitable GIBBS in 1725 in Watertown, Massachusetts. Mehitable was born on 8 Jan 1705/6 in Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts; died on 21 Aug 1727 in Salem, Essex Co., Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Son of John Marston and Alice Eden of Ornesby, co. Norfolk and Salem

Notes:

Name:
He was an active and enterprising merchant and carried on for many years an extensive and profitable business with the West Indies, Spain, Nova Scotia, and Southern Colonies. He owned two warehouses and the wharves on which they stood, several vessels, brigantines, kethches, shallops and sloops. In the year 1700 he built a large and handsome brick dwelling house the first brick house in Salem. It was built by George Cabot, a mason from Boston. Its location was afterwards occupied by the Lee mansion on the corner of Essex and Crombie streets. He suffered great losses towards the close of his life. Some of his vessels were lost at sea, some taken by the French and pirates, and others having lost all their crew by disease, or otherwise, "ye voiages were spiled." In June, 1719, he sailed with his son Benjamin, Jr. in 'The good Briganteen Essex' from Salem to Ireland. His son (Benjamin Marston, Jr.) wrote from Dublin, 6 Nov 1719, to his other announcing "the death of his father there, from the Small Pox, and that he was taken ill of the same distemper, the night he died, and that he had recovered and was not much marked." He had a will on 1 May 1719.

Benjamin married Patience ROGERS on 15 Apr 1696 in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Patience (daughter of Rev John ROGERS, M.D. and Elizabeth DENISON) was born on 13 May 1676 in Ipswich, Massachusetts; died on 22 May 1731 in Salem, Essex Co., Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]