William Marsden was born in Lancashire, England, on March 15, 1814. He worked as a cotton spinner until the age of 25, when he left the Methodist Church and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was made a priest by Parly P. Pratt and Brigham Young and helped organize a church in Oldham, England, with WIlliam Richards in 1840. He married Jane Appleby in 1835. Marsden preached in Leeds for a time, but, having lost his previous employment because of his religious conversion, had no means of supporting his family, and in 1840 sailed aboard the ship Clifton for New York. He spent the next year travelling the eastern seaboard, from New York City and Rockaway, New York, to Patterson and Trenton, New Jersey, and finally Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. In 1841 he traveled to Nauvoo, Illinois, and eventually settled in Oquawka, Illinois, where his family joined him in 1843. Marsden married two plural wives, Maria in 1853 and Sariah Scovil (Scoville) in 1856. His wife Jane died in 1843, and Marsden and Maria, along with four of his children, traveled to Salt Lake City in 1855. He and Maria divorced that same year and his wife Sariah died in 1868. Marsden was appointed Justice of the Peace for Parowan and Iron County, Utah, in 1871. He died in Parowan on June 4, 1890.
From the description of Autobiography and diary of William Marsden, 1871. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 506340751
