Edward Marshall

     Edward Marshall was born in 1710 at Bucks County, Pennsylvania.¹ He was the son of [—?—] Marshall. Edward Marshall first married Elizabeth Oberfeldt in 1735 at Bucks County, Province of Pennsylvania, America.¹ Edward Marshall married a second time Elizabeth Meaze Weiser, daughter of Nicholas Weiser, in 1758 at Bucks County, Province of Pennsylvania, America.¹ Edward Marshall died on 7 November 1789 at Delaware Island, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, at age 79 years. Year of death could be 1784.¹ He was buried in the Marshall Graveyard, located in Tinicum Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
     DAR Patriot Index - Centennial Edition, part 2, p. 1901.

In 1686, William Penn bought from the Lenape (Delaware) Indians a tract of land lying between the Delaware River and Neshaminy Creek, and extending northwestwardly as far a man could ride on horseback in two days. This agreement was not carried out until 1737, when the proprietaries and the Indians met at Easton. It was finally decided that the purchase of 1686 be consummated by commencing at Wrightstown and terminating at a spot that a man could reach in a one and a half days' walk.

Edward Marshall, one of the three walkers, started from Wrightstown at sunrise on September 19, 1737, and on noon the next day he had reached the Tobyhanna Creek, beyond the Endless Mountains. A line was drawn from this point to the Delaware River, the Lenape being under the impression that it would extend to the nearest point on the river. But the surveyors drew a rectangular line, terminating at the mouth of the Lackawaxen, thus robbing the Indians of their favorite hunting grounds on the Minisink.

By hiring three of the fastest men in the colony, who ran on a prepared path, twice the distance intended in the original agreement was covered. The Lenape lost an area the size of Rhode Island, including most of the Lehigh Valley. Great dissatisfaction followed, ending in open warfare upon the settlers in 1755. Within a few years the Indian tribes became desirous of peace, and arrangements were made for a treaty at Easton, PA, in August 1757.

One of the walkers described the 'Walk':

'I, Joseph Knowles, living with Timothy Smith at the Time of the Day and half's Walk with the Indians do say, that I went some Time before to carry the Chain, and help to clear a Road, as directed by my Uncle Timothy Smith. When the Walk was performed I was then present, and carried Provisions, Liquors and Bedding. About Sun-rising we set out from John Chapman's Corner at Wright's-town and travelled until we came to the Forks of Delaware, as near as I can remember was about one of the Clock the same Day. The Indians then began to look sullen, and murmured that the Men walked so fast and several Times that Afternoon called out, and said to them, You run; that's not fair, you was to walk. The Men appointed to walk paid no Regard to the Indians, but were urged by Timothy Smith and the rest of the Proprietor's Party, to proceed until the Sun was down. We lodged in the Woods that Night. Next Morning, being dull rainy Weather, we set out by the Watches, and two of the three Indians, that walked the Day before, came and travelled with us about two or three Miles, and then left us, being very must dissatisfied, and we proceeded by the Watches until Noon...'

Quote from Chief Lappawinsoe of the Lenape (Delaware) Tribe: 'The white runners should have walkt along by the River Delaware or the next Indian path to it. They should have walkt for a few miles and then have sat down and smoakt a pipe, and now and then have shot a squirrel, and not have kept up the run, run all day.'
Biography of Edward Marshall and Family

According to the inscription on his grave marker placed there by his family, Edward was born in 1710. But in his own testimony before Governor Denny in 1757 he stated that he was 42 years old, making his birth date about 1715.

Death: 07 Nov 1789 in Marshall Island, Bucks Co, PA of a severe cold with a short attack of influenza 2

Note: Edward Marshall, Tinicum Two, 13 Dec 1790. Owned Tinicum Island (150 acres) and 216 acres. Left widow and fifteen children: William (eldest son), Moses (second son), Martin, peter, Thomas, Catharine (wife of William Ridge), Jemima (wife of Isaac Newburn), Elizabeth (wife of Emanuel Pidcock), Naomai (wife of William McCalla), Amy (wife of Thomas Tillyer), Mary, Ann, Sarah and Rebecca, all of full age. Jemima is also deceased. [Bucks County Orphan's Court, File No. 998, by Thomas G. Myers, 1999, pp. 119-120.]

The Marshall graveyard is on a hill facing southeast, a mile and a half from where Tinicum creek empties into the Delaware. Tradition says that about 1760 two young girls, while out on a walk, stopped on this hill and while viewing the beautiful prospect from its top, one of them remarked, "When I die I wish to be buried here;" that she shortly died and was buried there under a cedar tree. Here Edward Marshall was subsequently buried, and on the marble slab covering his grave is a suitable inscription, thought to have been written by his son, Thomas. It was erected by his relatives, 1829. The deed for the lot was executed March 22, 1822, and recorded May 2, 1894. The walls around it were erected by Rebecca Kean, a daughter, 1851, and repaired by Dr. A. M. Cooper, 1892. The ground originally belonged to the Streeper tract. A number of other persons besides the Marshalls and their family connection have been buried there, including the McIntyres, Watsons, McDougals, Otts, Myers, Woods and others.

Note:
Edward died on his island, but for the sake of convenience his body was taken to the house of his son, Martin, a few yards below the mouth of Tinicum creek. The Rev. Nicholas Cox, a Baptist clergyman, delivered a discourse to a large assemblage. Edward was buried in the Marshall family burying ground, about one and a half miles distant.

Edward's grave marker was not installed until about 1829 and its inscription was written at that time by his son, Thomas, an administrator of Edward's estate. [Eliza Kean, Edward's granddaughter.]

Religion: Quaker by birth if not by practice

Note: "In his examination before Governor Denny in 1757, he said that he was 'of the people called Quakers,' aged forty-two years and 'a husbandman' by occupation." 1

Residence: 1730 Tinicum Twp, Bucks Co, PA

Event: received warrants for lands above Tohickon creek Property 1733 Tohickon Twp, Bucks Co, PA
Note: Nicholas Scull, deputy surveyor general, laid off the lands on the 9th of May, 1738, in three tracts. Edward's contained 164 acres and 114 perches, the east corner of which touched on the Delaware, stated to be bounded on the east by the London Conrpany's land and on the south by Mathew Hughes'. William Marshall's 162 acres and 117 perches were laid off adjoining his brother's tract on the northwest. Moses Marshall's tract of 174 acres and 28 perches was laid off about three-fourths of a mile west of the above, and we infer from the original draft is the tract that contains the present Marshall's graveyard, which will account for its location from near this early period. 3

Event: Tinicum Twp, Bucks Co, PA Migration Abt 1752 Mt. Bethel Twp, Northampton Co, PA

Note: His brother, John Marshall, and his nephews Abner and Benjamin Overfield, the sons of his sister, Rebecca, also resided in this section, but on the north side of the Mountain in Lower Smithfield township, as also several of his wife's relations. 4

Pennsylvania Migration 1755 New Jersey

Near the end of 1755, Edward moved his family to New Jersey as Indian hostilities escalated where they remained until the spring of 1757 having assumed that the greatest danger had passed. 5

Event: brother's will, William Marshall, Will Citation 18 Aug 1757

The Revolutionary War Military

William Denny, Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania, issued a summons on Edward Marshall and, by an express, January 23, 1757, conveyed him from his home to Philadelphia and actually kept him there until the following March 2nd before he was released for an account of his knowledge respecting the famous Walk. Of this affair, Edward's son, Moses, related to John Watson in 1820, that "a person came to their house with a summons for father to appear before Lord Loudoun in Philadelphia, and was very particularly examined respecting the Walk, his account taken down in writing to be sent to England."

John Watson, now of Buckingham, who is in himself a walking library in matters of local antiquity, especially in Buckingham valley, where the family first settled in 1691 -- besides the MS. book of occurrences (made by his father, Dr. John Watson) which he has bestowed on the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, has been a strenuous advocate of the "poor Indians" who, as he and others of Bucks County allege, were cheated out of their lands by the agents of the Penn family, at the time of the notable "great walk". He has written and given to the Philosophical Society, for their library, his circumstantial narrative of that "great walk". It was once a very exciting subject of animadversion and general discussion in Bucks.

The agents publicly advertised a fee of £5 for the greatest walker for one day, and procured Marshall, who ran over four times as much ground as the Indians expected. He argues, and supposes, that all the country north-west of Wrightstown Meeting House, was taken from the Delawares without compensation. [Nicholas Scull, the surveyor-general, made oath in 1757, that he was present when James Yeates, and Edward Marshall, together with some Indians, walked one and a half days back in the woods from Wrightstown; did not run, or go out of a walk; that B. Eastburn, surveyor-general, and T. Smith, sheriff, were also along, and were satisfied of the same; and that no objections were expressed by the Indians at the time.]

The Indians always cherished a spirit of revenge against Marshall, and a party of warriors once came from their settlement at Wyoming, to seek his life. He was from home, but his wife was made prisoner, and his children escaped, by an Indian thoughtlessly throwing his match coat over a bee hive, which caused the party to be so attacked and stung, that they went off without the children. The mother, being pregnant, could not keep up with the party, and her bones and remains were found, six months afterwards, on the Broad mountain. In the revolutionary war, the Indian warriors again returned from west of the Ohio, into Tinicum, or Noxamixon townships, still aiming at Marshall, and he again escaped by being from home; they then went back through Jersey. This they told themselves after the peace. The most of these facts, above told, are not in his "Narrative of the Walk" as above mentioned; but coming from his own mouth, are to be respected and believed, as the relations of an honest and intelligent gentleman : for such he is." [Watson's Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, 1857, Chapter 2, Part III Vol II]

"When Edward Marshall, the great walker, died in 1789, fourteen of his sixteen children were living. And whilst his numerous descendants are widely scattered from Tinicum to the South and West, it will be noticed that there are also a goodly number in Lycoming County, whither their ancestors drifted from Bucks County more than one hundred years ago." [Egle's Notes and Queries of Pennsylvania]

In 1686, William Penn bought from the Lenape (Delaware) Indians a tract of land lying between the Delaware River and Neshaminy Creek, and extending northwestwardly as far a man could ride on horseback in two days. This agreement was not carried out until 1737, when the proprietaries and the Indians met at Easton. It was finally decided that the purchase of 1686 be consummated by commencing at Wrightstown and terminating at a spot that a man could reach in a one and a half days' walk.

Edward Marshall, one of the three walkers, started from Wrightstown at sunrise on September 19, 1737, and on noon the next day he had reached the Tobyhanna Creek, beyond the Endless Mountains. A line was drawn from this point to the Delaware River, the Lenape being under the impression that it would extend to the nearest point on the river. But the surveyors drew a rectangular line, terminating at the mouth of the Lackawaxen, thus robbing the Indians of their favorite hunting grounds on the Minisink.

By hiring three of the fastest men in the colony, who ran on a prepared path, twice the distance intended in the original agreement was covered. The Lenape lost an area the size of Rhode Island, including most of the Lehigh Valley. Great dissatisfaction followed, ending in open warfare upon the settlers in 1755. Within a few years the Indian tribes became desirous of peace, and arrangements were made for a treaty at Easton, PA, in August 1757.

One of the walkers described the "Walk": "I, Joseph Knowles, living with Timothy Smith at the Time of the Day and half's Walk with the Indians do say, that I went some Time before to carry the Chain, and help to clear a Road, as directed by my Uncle Timothy Smith. When the Walk was performed I was then present, and carried Provisions, Liquors and Bedding. About Sun-rising we set out from John Chapman's Corner at Wright's-town and travelled until we came to the Forks of Delaware, as near as I can remember was about one of the Clock the same Day. The Indians then began to look sullen, and murmured that the Men walked so fast and several Times that Afternoon called out, and said to them, You run; that's not fair, you was to walk. The Men appointed to walk paid no Regard to the Indians, but were urged by Timothy Smith and the rest of the Proprietor's Party, to proceed until the Sun was down. . . . We lodged in the Woods that Night. Next Morning, being dull rainy Weather, we set out by the Watches, and two of the three Indians, that walked the Day before, came and travelled with us about two or three Miles, and then left us, being very must dissatisfied, and we proceeded by the Watches until Noon. . ."

Quote from Chief Lappawinsoe of the Lenape (Delaware) Tribe: "The white runners should have walkt along by the River Delaware or the next Indian path to it. They should have walkt for a few miles and then have sat down and smoakt a pipe, and now and then have shot a squirrel, and not have kept up the run, run all day."

"Cleans Up After The Walking Purchase"
Conrad Weiser, Friend of Colonist and Mohawk (pp. 96-99)
By Paul A. W. Wallace
University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia
Oxford University Press, 1945

Sometime during the summer of 1738 Weiser made a mysterious journey with his good friend William Parsons to Wyoming. Reference to this journey is so conspicuously excluded from the official records that we are led to think James Logan was engaged in something on behalf of the Proprietors that he did not wish the general citizenry (including his critics in the Assembly) to know about.

To explain this, it is necessary to look back upon the notorious Walking Purchase. Weiser was not directly concerned in that transaction itself, but since he was to be deeply concerned in some of its consequences, it is well to have a clear sight of it before we go on with the main story of Weiser's life.

In 1734 Thomas Penn produced a copy of an old deed (the original having, it seems, been lost) by which some Delaware chiefs had conveyed to William Penn a tract of land near the Delaware River, the bounds of which extended from a certain point "back into the woods, as far as a man can go in a day and a half," and thence to the river again. Such terms of measurement were common enough in the days of Indian occupation, when men shared land as they shared the winds of heaven. The phrasing did not encourage precise measurement (it was not intended to), but the meaning was clear. Penn was to be allowed the use of a strip of land some thirty miles long and a few miles deep. The Delawares had no expectation that the line would ever be paced off. When, however, they found that the white men insisted on taking the Walk literally, they said that an ordinary walk was intended, with time out for meals and no puffing or straining.

The men who signed the deed were easy-going gentlemen of the woods who wanted to do a good turn for a friend, and took no thought for the morrow. The men who, fifty years later, had the line run out, were gentlemen of a different breed. They wore wigs, read Latin, and despised

. . . the poor Indian whose untutored mind
Sees God in stones and hears him in the wind.

Besides, they were in the provincial service, and it was their business to take close thought for the morrow and the next day. They set out to make an innocent phrase cover all the lands still claimed by the Delawares in Pennsylvania, and so to settle their most vexing Indian problem.

It was a nasty business, but it was not as wicked as the political enemies of the Proprietors made it out to be. Thomas Penn, James Logan, and James Steel (the Receiver General), who were in charge, did not create the problem which the Walk was intended to solve. Much of the land involved had been fairly bought and paid for. But the Delawares were a scattered people who kept no Fire burning (i.e., had no common council with authority over their people), and the more shiftless among them, as already noticed, took advantage of that fact. They sold land and, when settlers moved in, denied the sale and demanded compensation. A land racket of dangerous proportions had grown up. The Proprietors were resolved to stop all that. So far so good. It was necessary for the orderly development of the province. The regret is that the method they used was simply that of outsmarting the worst sort of Indian at his own game, and by this means they gave the Delawares a legitimate grievance in place of a pretended one.

The less savory elements of the Walking Purchase were kept out of the official records, but enough has leaked out to enable us to see that every step was well calculated in advance, and that the affair moved with precision from the first traveling of the line in 1735 to the expulsion of the Delawares in 1742.

In the spring of 1735, the Proprietors engaged Timothy Smith and John Chapman to clear a way for the Walk. Three persons "who can travel well" were employed to see "how far that day & half Travelling will reach up the Country." This was only a preliminary step, but all pains were taken to stretch the elastic terms of the deed to cover the utmost extend of territory. Horses and riders were hired to carry provisions for the walkers. "Rum, Sugar & Lime Juce" were sent to Timothy Smith to help the walkers get well beyond the West Branch (or Lehigh River) so as to bring the lands now occupied by the important cities of Bethlehem and Easton into the purchase. There was some delay, which put the proprietorial government into a considerable sweat, as the letter of James Steel disclose; but before the summer was over the walk had been accomplished, and the information gained by it was turned over to surveyors and draughtsman who showed Thomas Penn and James Logan, how, by the use of a little plane geometry, a walk of a day and a half could be made to take in the stretch of some 150 miles of the best land along the river - indeed, all the lands still claimed by the Delawares in the province.

Before the final Walk was made, there were other preliminaries of a political nature to be attended to. It was evident enough that the Delawares would protest. It was feared that they might appeal to their Uncles, the Six Nations (as Nootamis threatened to do in 1736). First, then, the Six Nations must be prepared. We have already seen how James Logan availed himself of his illness to have the Six Nations, out of the public eye, surrender by the "after-thought" deed of October 25, 1736, any rights they might have had to the Delaware lands. Their authority should never be used to protect their Nephews against the Proprietors. Logan's plan worked even better than he had hoped. The Six Nations chiefs, having no doubt been informed in Philadelphia of the vast territory supposed to be embraced by the terms of the old deed, wrote the letter already quoted requesting the Proprietors not to buy any more land of the Delawares since they had already sold all they had ever possessed.

The next step was to get the Delawares to confirm the earlier deed. This had been attempted in 1734 and again in 1735, without success. The Delawares had hedged. But in August 1737 it was finally accomplished. Thomas Penn, through the interpreter Barefoot Brunston, reminded the Delawares "as well of the Justice of William Penn and of his great Love for all the Indians." Chief Manawkyhickon agreed that Thomas Penn's father was "a good Man," and expressed his own desire to "continue the same Love and Friendship that had subsisted between William Penn and all the Indians"; but he said he hesitated about signing a confirmation of the deed, since the Proprietor knew "how the Lines mentioned in the deed . . . are to run" while the Indians did not."

When a very innocent-looking (and it is to be feared misleading) draught was made by old Mr. Andrew Hamilton and shown to the Indians, their doubts were resolved. Manawkyhickon, Lappawinzoe, Mootamis, and Tisheekunk put their marks on the confirmation. That was on August 25, 1737.

Preliminaries thus disposed of, the Proprietors moved fast. On August 27 instructions were issued for the final Walk. James Steel wrote to "Friend Solomon Jennings" (described by the same Quaker correspondent three years before as "a Person of ill fame") to undertake this service with such assistants as should be provided for him. On that same day Steel write to Timothy Smith, Sheriff of Bucks, to engage the walker who had "held out the best" when the line was walked before: "and be Shoor," wrote Steel, "to chose the best Ground and Shortest way that can be found" In the end, three men were selected: Solomon Jennings, James Yates, and Edward Marshall. Surveyors were instructed to lay out, from the information obtained in the preliminary scamper of 1735, the best and shortest route to the desired end. Trees were felled and a path cleared.

Young Joseph Knowles (nephew of the sheriff) has left a good account of what happened on the final day and a half:

"I Joseph Knowles living with Timothy Smith . . . Do say that I went some time before, to Carry the Chean & help to clear a Road. (as directed by my Uncle Timothy Smith). When the Walk was performed, I was then present, & Carryed Provisions liquors, & Beding. About Sun riseing, we set out from John Chapmans Corner, at Wrightstown & Travelled until we came to the forks of Delaware (as near as I can remember) was about One of the Clock the same day. The Indians then began to look Sullen & Murmured that the men walked so fast, and Severall times that Afternoon, Called out, and Say'd to them you Run, that's not fair, you was to Walk. The men appointed to Walk, paid no regard to the Indians, But was urged by Timothy Smith & the rest of the Proprietors party to proceed. Until the sun was down, we was near the Indian town in the forks. The Indians denyed us going to the Town, on Excuse of a Canteco. We lodged in the Woods that night. Next morning being dull rainy weather, we sett out by the Watches, & Two of the three Indians, that walked the day before, came and Travelled with us about, Two or three Miles, & then left us, being Verry much Dissatisfied, & we proceeded by the Watches until Noon."

Friend Solomon Jennings (who loved his bottle) gave up the first day and Yates the second, but Marshall kept on. When he threw himself down on the ground at noon, he had reached a spur of the Broad Mountain near Mauch Chunk. Sixty-four English miles had grown out of thirty.

And that was not all. By the terms of the old deed, a line was to be run from the point where the Walk ended back to the Delaware River. It might have been expected to take the shortest way, as indeed it would have done if this had been the Forest of Arden. But this was the Forest of Penn and Ink. The line was squared off at a right angle from the Walk and run parallel to the Delaware, which here makes a great bend, following a course that took four days to walk before the river was reached again at the mouth of Lackawaxen Creek. A set-square had completed what Marshall had begun, and finished off one of the greatest land frauds in our history.

James Hughes of Bedminster, who attended the surveyors in running the line to the North Branch of the Delaware, informed John Watson that "as he & the Survey Returned from running the Line they called at Tattamins who informed them that the Indians since the Walk had poisoned to Death One Lappakoo, An Indian who Against the Minds of the Indians in general, had consented to the Walk; and now see it so unreasonably performed were so incensed against him as to put him to Death."

Edward Marshall lived to an unhappy old age. In 1769 he complained to Richard Smith, who visited him on his island in the Delaware, that the Proprietors had not rewarded him for his services. (Richard Smith's journal of 1769, p. 79. On June 9 he lodged at night with Edward Marshall, "who lives on an island 35 miles above Trenton . . . This Marshal is the Man who performed the famous Walk for the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania for which he tells us he has never yet received any Reward.") Be that as it may, the Indians did not neglect him. They killed his wife and his son and wounded his daughter. He himself escaped.

Samuel Preston relates in a communication written in 1826, that in 1782 and the following year he had formed his first acquaintance with Edward Marshall. Having been called on as a surveyor to settle some old lines in Tinicum and Nockamixon townships he required his assistance to show him the boundaries. "To me," he says, "he appeared a respectable old man of good memory and fair standing as to veracity, in his testimony respecting lines and corners. He was a native of Bucks county, and a large, heavy-set, strong-boned man. He was then living on his large Island, had been a noted hunter and chain carrier for Nicholas Scull. He gave me a statement of his great Walk in which he was fully determined to beat or die in the attempt." [History of the Indian Walk, William J. Buck, History of the Indian Walk performed for the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania in 1737; to which is appended a Life of Edward Marshall (Printed for the Author, 1886), p. 241]

[The History of Bucks County, W. W. H. Davis, 1876] Of the three white men who started upon the Great Walk of 1737, [Edward] Marshall is the better known. . . . Edward Marshall was a native of Bustleton, Philadelphia county, where he was born in 1710, which makes him 27 years old when he performed the Great Walk. He was a hunter by occupation and choice. He was twice married and was the father of 21 children. It is not known at what time he came into the county, but we first find him living with his first wife near where Stroudsburg, Monroe county, stands. In his absence from home hostile Indians came to his house, when his wife fled, but was overtaken and killed, with two unborn infants. From this time Marshall swore vengeance against the Indians, and never lost an opportunity to kill one. He would at times simply remark, when questioned about his Indian experience, that when he saw one "he generally shut one eye, and never saw him afterward." After the death of his wife, Elizabeth Mease kept house for him, and, during that time, the Indians attacked it again while he was away from home. His son, Peter, loaded the gun and Elizabeth fired out the window, keeping the Indians at bay until Marshall returned. He afterward married her, and she had eight children. He was probably a single man at the time of the walk, and did not move up to Monroe county until afterward. The Indians were hostile to him because of the part he took in the Great Walk. He subsequently removed to an island in the Delaware, opposite Tinicum, which bears his name, where he died. His body was brought to the Pennsylvania side and buried from a house that stood on the site of one now standing just below the mouth of Tinicum creek. His place of interment in the Marshall burying-ground, is marked by a stone, with the following inscription: "In memory of Edward Marshall, senior, who departed this life November 7th, 1789, aged seventy-nine years. "Unveil thy bosom faithful tomb, Take this frail treasure to thy trust, And find these sacred relics room, To slumber in the silent dust." Another stone is "in memory of Elizabeth Marshall, who departed this life October 12th, 1807, aged eighty years," his second wife. Of his children William died at the age of eighty, at the mouth of Tinicum creek, Catharine was the maternal grandmother of many of the Ridges of Tinicum, and Marshall's island, which contained 250 acres when Edward Marshall lived on it, was given to his sons, Martin and William. Moses died about the last of June 1828, on Marshall's island. He said that his father did not move to the backwoods until after the Indian war of 1756, and that he escaped when his mother was massacred by hiding under a bench on which were several bee-hives, and upon which the Indians threw their match-coats while they went to scalp his mother. He used to relate several incidents of the walk. His father wore very thin and flexible moccasins, and carried a hatchet, and a few light biscuits. None of the streams on the route were to be crossed in boats except the Lehigh, but were to be forded, neither were the walkers permitted to run and jump over a creek, but might go first to the edge and make an observations, and then return and jump it. The walkers did not leave the Durham road until they reached the furnace, when they followed blazed trees through the woods. The rifle that Edward Marshall carried is now owned by his grandson, William Ridge, of Tinicum, who lives on the Delaware a short distance below the mouth of Tinicum creek. It is a flint-lock, in good condition, and the name of the German maker, or the place where made, stamped on the barrel. The family tradition is that Marshall killed 1,003 deer with it, besides other animals, and unnumbered Indians. Eliza Kean, his granddaughter, and a daughter of his son Thomas, 82 years old, in 1876, was then living on the New Jersey side of the Delaware, just below Frenchtown, owned his eight-day clock, in good running order, and his chest of drawers, 300 years old, which his grandfather brought from England. Philip Hinkle has a shot-gun that belonged to Edward Marshall.




Source #1:
Media: Book
Abbrev: History of the Indian Walk
Title: History of the Indian Walk performed for the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania in 1737; to which is appended a Life of Edward Marshall
Author: William J. Buck
Publication: Printed for the Author, 1886
Page: p. 204
Quality: 3
Date: 19 May 2007

Source #2:
Media: Book
Abbrev: History of the Indian Walk
Title: History of the Indian Walk performed for the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania in 1737; to which is appended a Life of Edward Marshall
Author: William J. Buck
Publication: Printed for the Author, 1886
Page: p. 242
Quality: 3
Date: 19 May 2007

Source #3:
Media: Book
Abbrev: History of the Indian Walk
Title: History of the Indian Walk performed for the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania in 1737; to which is appended a Life of Edward Marshall
Author: William J. Buck
Publication: Printed for the Author, 1886
Page: p. 205
Quality: 3
Date: 19 May 2007

Source #4:
Media: Book
Abbrev: History of the Indian Walk
Title: History of the Indian Walk performed for the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania in 1737; to which is appended a Life of Edward Marshall
Author: William J. Buck
Publication: Printed for the Author, 1886
Page: p. 216
Quality: 3
Date: 19 May 2007

Source #5:
Media: Book
Abbrev: History of the Indian Walk
Title: History of the Indian Walk performed for the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania in 1737; to which is appended a Life of Edward Marshall
Author: William J. Buck
Publication: Printed for the Author, 1886
Page: p. 224-225
Quality: 3
Date: 19 May 2007

Source #6:
Media: Book
Abbrev: History of the Indian Walk
Title: History of the Indian Walk performed for the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania in 1737; to which is appended a Life of Edward Marshall
Author: William J. Buck
Publication: Printed for the Author, 1886
Page: p. 205
Date: 19 May 2007. From 'Watson's Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania' (1857), Vol II, Part III, Chapter 2.

'John Watson, now of Buckingham, who is in himself a walking library in matters of local antiquity, especially in Buckingham valley, where the family first settled in 1691 -- besides the MS. book of occurrences (made by his father, Dr. John Watson) which he has bestowed on the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, has been a strenuous advocate of the 'poor Indians' who, as he and others of Bucks County allege, were cheated out of their lands by the agents of the Penn family, at the time of the notable 'great walk.' He has written and given to the Philosophical Society, for their library, his circumstantial narrative of that 'great walk.' It was once a very exciting subject of animadversion and general discussion in Bucks.

The agents publicly advertised a fee of £5 for the greatest walker for one day, and procured Marshall, who ran over four times as much ground as the Indians expected. He argues, and supposes, that all the country north-west of Wrightstown Meeting House, was taken from the Delawares without compensation. (Nicholas Scull, the surveyor-general, made oath in 1757, that he was present when James Yeates, and Edward Marshall, together with some Indians, walked one and a half days back in the woods from Wrightstown; did not run, or go out of a walk; that B. Eastburn, surveyor-general, and T. Smith, sheriff, were also along, and were satisfied of the same; and that no objections were expressed by the Indians at the time.)

The Indians always cherished a spirit of revenge against Marshall, and a party of warriors once came from their settlement at Wyoming, to seek his life. He was from home, but his wife was made prisoner, and his children escaped, by an Indian thoughtlessly throwing his match coat over a bee hive, which caused the party to be so attacked and stung, that they went off without the children. The mother, being pregnant, could not keep up with the party, and her bones and remains were found, six months afterwards, on the Broad mountain. In the revolutionary war, the Indian warriors again returned from west of the Ohio, into Tinicum, or Noxamixon townships, still aiming at Marshall, and he again escaped by being from home; they then went back through Jersey. This they told themselves after the peace. The most of these facts, above told, are not in his 'Narrative of the Walk' as above mentioned; but coming from his own mouth, are to be respected and believed, as the relations of an honest and intelligent gentleman : for such he is.'


From 'Egle's Notes and Queries of Pennsylvania,' (Harrisburg Daily Telegraph 1879-1895), by William Henry Egle.

'When Edward Marshall, the great walker, died in 1789, fourteen of his sixteen children were living. And whilst his numerous descendants are widely scattered from Tinicum to the South and West, it will be noticed that there are also a goodly number in Lycoming County, whither their ancestors drifted from Bucks County more than one hundred years ago.'

More About EDWARD MARSHALL:
Individual Note: 1737, One of three men employed by John Penn in the great Walking Purchase in Bucks Co, PA.
Migration: 1730, Living in Tinicum Twp, Bucks Co, PA.
Nationality: English-Quaker Origin.