Notes for Mary MARSH

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Notes for Mary MARSH

Who was Mary, the wife of Charles Clark? There are sources who give the spouse of Charles Clark as Mary Marsh, and some go further to call her the granddaughter of John Marsh, who married Elizabeth Clark, daughter of Richard (1) Clarke.
Several identified her as the daughter of Benjamin Marsh and his wife Margaret Ewen. That is possible. The will of Margaret, dated Feb. 14, 1747/48, proved Jan. 20, 1748, mentions daughter Mary Clark.
Benjamin, who was a son of John and Elizabeth (Clarke) Marsh (and therefore a grandson of Richard 1 Clarke), had six children. We do not know their birth order or dates, but one was Benjamin Marsh who is said to have been born in Rahway, NJ in
1725. Another child was Sarah, born ca. 1727, who married Ebenezer Williams. Their daughter Mary could have been born in 1733. [Benjamin's will is dated Jan. 31, 1733/34. Mary, the wife of Charles Clark, was born in 1733, according to her
gravestone.
Charles Carroll Gardner, in his work on the Clark family, has the Mary Marsh, daughter of Benjamin and Margaret (Ewen) Marsh, as married to Reuben Clark [#2525 in this program]. The will of Margaret (Ewen) Marsh, mentioned above, which includes
reference to her daughter Mary Clark, also mentions a mortgage on "plantation on which Rubin Clark lives". It may be solely from that reference that Gardner makes a connection, and makes Mary the wife of Reuben Clark. Reuben Clark and his wife Mary,
however, were married in 1747, which would be inconsistent with a birth date of 1732 or 1733 for the Mary, daughter of Benjamin Marsh, if the above chronology of his children is correct.
Considering that from her gravestone we learn that she was born in 1733, and from the fact that she was 19 years of age at the birth of her first son, in 1752, it is unlikely that Mary was previously married and the widow of a Marsh, nor do
the Marsh records we have seen indicate any appropriate death of male Marsh.
If the wife of Charles Clark was a Marsh, it is likely that she was the daughter of Benjamin; proof is lacking and this does require documentation. The other children of Benjamin are mentioned in his father John Marsh's will, but not Mary.

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