Edward Marshall
Portland, Northampton County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Measurer of the notorious Walking Purchase, 1737, lived in this area, 1755-1759. In the many Indian raids of this time, his wife and his oldest son were killed, 1757, supposedly in revenge. Later he returned to Bucks County.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Edward Marshall was one of the fast walkers hired to pace off the 1737 Walking Purchase, the land grab that stripped the Lenape of vast territory in the Delaware Valley. He later settled in this frontier area, where in 1757, amid the raids of the French and Indian War, his wife and eldest son were killed—by some accounts in reprisal for his role in the notorious survey. Marshall eventually withdrew to the safer settlements of Bucks County.
Why it matters
His hard life shows how a single act of dispossession rippled outward into decades of violence on the Pennsylvania frontier, binding one family's fate to the collapse of Indian-colonial trust.
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Related people
- · Edward Marshall
Related events
- · Walking Purchase
Themes & tags
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