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Finding Aid for the Elizabeth Marsh Narrative of her Captivity in Barbary [...et al.], [between 1760 and 1795]
170/604
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Title: Elizabeth Marsh Narrative of her Captivity in Barbary [...et al.]
Date (inclusive): [between 1760 and 1795]
Collection number: 170/604
Creator:
Marsh, Elizabeth
Extent:
106 leaves extant, 3 have been removed: paper; 240 x 190 mm. bound to 249 x 200 mm.
Abstract: This bound manuscript contains two separate narratives. Narrative of her
Captivity in Barbary, a draft of the earliest Barbary captivity narrative to be published by an Englishwoman, details Elizabeth Marsh's 1956 capture
by pirates. The second piece,
Journal of a Voyage by Sea from Calcutta to Madras, and of a
Journey from thence back to Dacca, written considerably later circa 1775, describes her travels around India.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library,
Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of
the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC
Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Ex libris John Marsh [author's brother]; his bookplate on upper paste-down (see also note on leaf 69v). Library's acquisition
source and date unknown.
[Identification of item], Elizabeth Marsh Narrative of her Captivity in Barbary [...et al.] (Collection Number 170/604). Department
of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Cataloged by Manushag Powell, with assistance from Jain Fletcher and Laurel McPhee, July 2004, in the Center For Primary Research
and Training (CFPRT).
Elizabeth Marsh, a middle-class Englishwoman, was born in 1735 to a naval dockyard manager and his wife. She was living with
her parents in Minorca when the start of the Seven Years' War in 1756 forced the family to relocate to Gibraltar. On a sailing
voyage to visit friends in England, her ship was attacked by corsairs. Marsh, along with the other passengers and sailors,
was taken captive and sent to Sallee (Salé) and then Marrakesh (Marrakech), Morocco. Her sufferings were politically motivated;
the soon-to-be sultan, Sidi Mohammed, had responded to the insulting behavior of an envoy of the British government with a
wave of aggressive captive-taking. Marsh was ransomed by the British government after several months, and returned safely
to Gibraltar.
During her initial voyage, she was traveling (she states) under the protection of a family friend, a young merchant named
James Crisp. The two claimed to be siblings upon the commencement of their captivity, and later claimed to be married, ostensibly
to protect Marsh from the sexual interest of Sidi Mohammed. Marsh narrates that, by repeating some words spoken to her by
one of his women, she converted or was tricked into converting to Islam. It took a great deal of tears and pleading to convince
Mohammed to respect her preference of remaining a "married" Christian woman. After her release, Marsh returned to her parents
and married Crisp legally. The pair settled in England until financial troubles forced Crisp to relocate to India, where his
wife eventually joined him and where the two remained until the ends of their lives. If her journal of her tour of the Indian
coast is any indication, her traumatic Barbary experience did not quash her taste for adventure, and she seems to have enjoyed
traveling despite the dangers and discomforts she sometimes faced. The couple had two children, a son and a daughter. Both
their son and son-in-law worked for the East India Company.
Some of the details of Marsh's life as she gives it in these works have indeed been verified (see Linda Colley's work), although
this does not mean that all aspects of her narratives are invariably true.
The first account,
Narrative of her Captivity in Barbary (1r-59), begins with the author's capture by Barbary pirates. Marsh describes her captivity and her travels therein from Sallee
(Salé) to Marrakesh (Marrakech) to Safee (Safi), and her eventual return to Gibraltar. The second, Journal of a Voyage by
Sea from Calcutta to Madras, and of a Journey from thence back to Dacca (69v-102r), details her travels around India in an
effort to improve her health. The manuscript records the places she visited, and her impressions of the climate, people,
and landscape.
The narrative sections are as follows:
- Narrative I: Narrative of her Captivity in Barbary (ca. 1760).
- Narrative II: Journal of a Voyage by Sea from Calcutta to Madras, and of a Journey from thence back to Dacca (ca. 1775).
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Manuscripts.
Bound Manuscripts Collection (Collection 170)
. Available at the Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.