Marsden, William (1754–1836), orientalist, numismatist, and secretary to the admiralty, was born 16 November 1754, probably in Verval, Co. Wicklow, youngest child among six sons and four daughters of John Marsden (d. 1801), a wealthy merchant in Dublin, who was one of the founders of the Bank of Ireland, and subsequently a director. His mother was his father's second wife, Eleanor (née Bagnall or Bagenal). One of his elder brothers was Alexander Marsden (qv). It was intended that William should become a clergyman; he received a classical education and in 1770 was about to enter TCD when his elder brother John wrote home to suggest that William should be sent to join him in Sumatra. He was removed from school forthwith, and reached Bencoolin (Bengkulu), Sumatra, in May 1771.
During his time in the East India Company's trading establishment there he learned the Malay language, collected plants, and sent home scientific observations; he was made principal secretary to the government, but in the summer of 1779 retired with a modest fortune and left for England, where he invested his money in government bonds, and lived for a time on their dividends; he also briefly from 1785 was his brother's partner in a trading agency in London. He occupied himself in further study of the language and culture of the East Indies; he collected Malay manuscripts and objects, and was friendly with such prominent scientists as Sir Joseph Banks, Neville Maskelyne, and Sir William Herschel. He was elected FRS in January 1783, and in 1785 was one of the founding members of the RIA; he was also a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and one of the founders of the Royal Asiatic Society. In 1782 he refused a post as secretary to Sir Hyde Parker in India.
In 1783 his History of Sumatra was published, the first detailed work on the island to appear in any European language; it is a general and scientific description rather than a history, and it was so well received that it had three editions before 1811, as well as French and German translations. It was reprinted in a facsimile edition in 1966, and is still cited, especially by Dutch historians, who note its focus on the native inhabitants, rather than on the Europeans' concerns, which was unusual at the time. In June 1786 Oxford University granted Marsden an honorary DCL.
When approached in March 1795 by Lord Spencer, the new first lord of the admiralty, Marsden agreed to take the post of second secretary to the board of the admiralty. In 1804 he succeeded Sir Evan Nepean as first secretary when Nepean became chief secretary for Ireland. Some of the credit for the great achievements of the British navy during the period has been apportioned to Spencer and Nepean; Marsden's contribution also deserves acknowledgment. It is said that his service was ‘greatly to his own honour and the public good’ (Knight, 1836); it was Marsden who attended the board of the admiralty when negotiations took place in Portsmouth to bring about the end of the mutiny at Spithead, and his letter to Nepean on the discussions was forwarded to the king. Overwork led to health problems, and in June 1807 he resigned on a pension of £1,500 a year; in 1831 he decided to stop drawing it, and his public-spirited action was commended in parliament.
In 1812 he was finally able to publish his Dictionary of the Malayan language, to which is prefixed a grammar, on which he had been at work since 1786; its organisation and coverage ensured its preeminence in the field almost till the twentieth century, and it is still of interest to linguistic historians. The Dutch government, recognising its importance for officials in the Dutch East Indies, ordered in 1825 a translation into Dutch.
Marsden also had a high reputation as a numismatist, particularly as a collector of oriental coins; his Numismata orientalia illustrata (1823–4; reprinted in New York, 1977) was a painstaking description based on his own outstanding collection of over 3,000 coins, which he presented to the British Museum in July 1834. A catalogue of his library was published in 1827; in 1835 he presented a valuable collection of over 2,000 books and manuscripts to King's College, London; it was transferred after 1909 to the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London. Marsden also published in 1818 a translation of the Travels of Marco Polo, as well as various papers in journals, and pamphlets on such topics as the methodology of compiling a national dictionary of the English language. He suffered from heart trouble, and died after a heart attack on 6 October 1836 at his house, Edge Grove, Hertfordshire. He was buried in Kensal Green cemetery, London.
He married (22 August 1807) at Marylebone, London, Elizabeth Wray Wilkins, daughter of one of his chief scholarly collaborators, Sir Charles Wilkins. They seem to have had no children; his wife survived him and in 1838 published privately an autobiography prepared by her late husband, and in the same year married William Leake, a numismatist friend of Marsden. A memoir of Leake was later written by a J. F. Marsden; the relationship, if any, is unknown. Three likenesses of Marsden are in the National Portrait Gallery, London; another is mentioned in his obituary in the Gentleman's Magazine.
