Joseph Marshall (cricketer, born 1835)

Joseph William Marshall (5 December 1835 – 10 September 1915) was an English clergyman and a cricketer who played first-class cricket for Cambridge University and Cambridge Town Club (aka Cambridgeshire).[1] He was born in Cambridge and died at Kidbrooke, Blackheath, London.

Marshall was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and at Trinity College, Cambridge.[2] He played cricket for Cambridge University in all three seasons from 1855 to 1857 and appeared in the University Match against Oxford University each year.[1] Details of his cricket are in some places sketchy, and it is not known if he was right- or left-handed; he played as an opening or middle-order batsman and also bowled, though he appears to have been a change bowler rather than a front-line bowler. In the University Match of 1857, he scored 48 in the Cambridge first innings, the highest score of his university cricket career, and he took two Oxford wickets; but Oxford won the match comfortably.[3] Earlier in the same season, his score of 78 for the Cambridge Town Club against the university team was the highest of his first-class career; in this match, his younger brother John made his first-class debut.[4] He did not play any further first-class cricket after leaving Cambridge University, though he continued to appear in minor matches, including some for Staffordshire, through to the 1880s.[1]

After leaving university, Marshall was ordained as a clergyman in the Church of England and served as curate at Martley, Worcestershire and in two churches in Birmingham.[2] From 1864 to 1875 he was vicar of Birchfield, then part of Staffordshire.[2] He then moved to St John the Evangelist's Church, Blackheath in south-east London as vicar and remained there until his retirement in 1909; from 1900 he was an honorary canon of Rochester Cathedral and from 1906 a canon also of Southwark Cathedral, retaining both of these posts to his death in 1915.[2]

Marshall's daughter, Elsie Marshall, was one of the Christian missionaries killed in 1895 in the Kucheng Massacre in China; he edited her letters for publication.[2]