This engaging and carefully researched book tells, for the first time, the story of William Marsh (1738-1816), an intriguing but little-known Revolutionary figure whose life crossed borders both national and political.
Before the war, Marsh and several thousand other New Hampshire Grants settlers faced grave challenges to their land titles from New York which laid claim to the territory that was to become Vermont. A colonel in the Manchester (VT) militia, Marsh supported the Green Mountain Boys’ paramilitary actions against the Yorkers’ moves to dispossess the settlers.
As the Revolution began, he played a key role in uniting the Vermont towns as they organized to request the American Continental Congress to recognize them as a state. When the congress refused, and when the British proposed to offer them recognition and support, Marsh turned to the British as offering the best prospects for Vermont as it struggled to survive on its own.
This new biography opens the reader's eyes to the political and economic hardships of Vermont’s settlers during the era of the American Revolution, a time when many were justifiably troubled about where their loyalties should lie.