Charles Marsack (1747/8 – 22 December 1820) was an

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...

army officer and landowner who, from seemingly humble origins had made a fortune in India, and according to stories first published in

Burke's Landed Gentry ''Burke's Landed Gentry'' (originally titled ''Burke's Commoners'') is a reference work listing families in Great Britain and Ireland who have owned rural estates of some size. The work has been in existence from the first half of the 19th cen ...

in 1894, was reputedly the son of

Frederick, Prince of Wales Frederick, Prince of Wales, (Frederick Louis, ; 31 January 170731 March 1751), was the eldest son and heir apparent of King George II of Great Britain. He grew estranged from his parents, King George and Queen Caroline. Frederick was the fat ...

or of King George II by a so-called Comtesse de Marsac. He was said to have been born about 1735-6 (from his age at burial) but was probably born (from his age at marriage) in 1747-8 and was said to have married in 1767 (whereas he married in 1783). He was actually the son of Jean Charles Marsac (1708-1751), a servant to one of George II's pages, Joachim Lorentz Sollifoffer (died 1754), who in his will made generous provision for the widowed Margaret Marsac née Saunders and her child Jean Charles who was his godson. Jean Charles Marsac's father was the son of a migrant from

Poitou Poitou (, , ; ; Poitevin dialect, Poitevin: ''Poetou'') was a Provinces of France, province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers. Both Poitou and Poitiers are named after the Pictones Gallic tribe. Geography The main histori ...

, also called Charles Marsac, a carpenter, who had come to England before 1704/5. Jean Charles Marsac was usually called Charles Marsac and was apprenticed as a weaver. He died in Kensington in 1751, having married at

St Martin in the Fields St Martin-in-the-Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. It is dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours. There has been a church on the site since at least the mediev ...

in 1745/6 one Margaret Saunders who was probably related to Thomas Saunders (died 1753), standing wardrobe keeper to George I and George II. She married secondly at St George's Chapel,

Mayfair Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world ...

, John Holcroft (died 1768), and died in 1785, her administration being granted to Charles Marsack her 'natural and lawful son'. By her second husband she had a daughter Margaretta Holcroft (1755-1785) who lived with William Roome and had several illegitimate children by him who (aided by editions of

down to 1937) spread the story that she was the daughter of Margaret, Comtesse de Marsac. Marsack went to India around 1760 as an Ensign in the service of the East India Company. After being appointed Lieutenant and Surveyor of the province of Oudh, he rose by 1777 to be Captain of a cavalry unit of the Nabob of Oudh. Resigning his commission in 1779, he in 1780 undertook an arduous journey from Lucknow to Delhi and back to meet the powerful Najaf Khan, a journey that was documented by his native travelling companion. He was expelled from Oudh by

Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first Governor-Genera ...

in 1782 and gave evidence against the latter at his trial. In 1783 he returned to England as Major Marsack and following marriage, with £20,000 contributed by his wife's trustees, bought

Caversham Park Caversham Park is a Victorian-era stately home with parkland in the suburb of Caversham on the outskirts of Reading, England. Historically located in Oxfordshire, it became part of Berkshire with boundary changes in 1911. Caversham Park was hom ...

in Oxfordshire from Lord Cadogan, restoring and enlarging the house in the Greek style, including the installation of a large Corinthian colonnade at the front.

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the nati ...

had previously described the estate as having 25 acres of garden, 400 acres of park and 6 acres of kitchen garden. Now in Berkshire and from 1943 to 2018 used by the BBC, Caversham Park house has been rated a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

building. Marsack served as

High Sheriff of Oxfordshire The High Sheriff of Oxfordshire, in common with other counties, was originally the King's representative on taxation upholding the law in Saxon times. The word Sheriff evolved from 'shire-reeve'. The title of High Sheriff is therefore much olde ...

for 1787 and died at Caversham Park, 8 November 1820. He was survived by his widow Charlotte Becher (1767-1837), whom he had married at Epsom, Surrey in 1783, and by seven of his eleven children: Richard Henry (1786-1852), George Hartwell (*1791), Edward Claude (*1794) and four daughters Charlotte (*1785), Caroline (1800-1836) who married Thomas Frederick Sowdon (1793-1873), son of Thomas Sowdon and Eleanor at St Mary's Church, Reading in 1821, Louisa (*1802), Mary Eleanor (*1807). His eldest son Charles, born in 1784, had died in 1786, and the Caversham estate passed to his eldest surviving son, Richard Henry, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Grenadier Guards, who sold it in 1844 to William Crawshay.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marsack, Charles 1747 births 1820 deaths British East India Company Army officers High Sheriffs of Oxfordshire