Marston, Benjamin

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Wallace Brown, “MARSTON, BENJAMIN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 4, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/marston_benjamin_4E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Merchant, surveyor, and office-holder; b. 22 Sept. 1730 at Salem, Massachusetts, eldest son of Benjamin Marston and Elizabeth Winslow; m. 13 Nov. 1755 at Marblehead, Massachusetts, Sarah Swett; d. 10 Aug. 1792 at Bolama, Portuguese Guinea (Guinea-Bissau).
    • Benjamin Marston obtained his AB from Harvard College in 1749 and later went into business where he achieved prosperity and respectability. With the onset of the American revolution Marston emerged as a marked, outspoken loyalist.
    • In March 1776 Marston accompanied the British garrison of Boston to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he was to have a chequered career as a merchant and supercargo, mainly in the West Indian trade.
    • Soon afterwards, on the recommendation of his cousin Edward Winslow, Marston was appointed by the surveyor general of the king’s woods in North America in the newly created province of New Brunswick.
    • He kept a diary from 1776 to 1787 which is an important source for the history of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Like many loyalists he remained an American patriot and had high hopes for New Brunswick.
  • Listed as Loyalist in Loyalist Directory – https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=5037
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173930982/benjamin-marston