Chester County’s Humphry Marshall was an influential colonial botanist and scientist. Born in 1722, to Quaker immigrants, he lived through the American Revolution and died in 1801. Humphry was a younger cousin of botanist John Bartram. Like Bartram, he collected, grew and supplied native plants to Europeans eager to learn about them and to grow them. He was an active correspondent with some of the leading botanists in both the new and old world. Originally a farmer and stone mason, he was a self-educated scientist, and an astronomer, encouraged by Benjamin Franklin. He was a local leader, and County official. The village of Marshallton, where he lived, was named after his family.
