William Marshall (1796–1872)
William Marshall was a British politician.
He served as the Member of Parliament for Petersfield, for Leominster, for Beverley, for Carlisle, and for East Cumberland.
He was the eldest son of the wealthy industrialist John Marshall who introduced major innovations in flax spinning and built the celebrated Marshall's Mill and Temple Works in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Their family name may have inspired the character of Richard Marshall in the 1968 film Witchfinder General, which is set in that area during the English Civil War.
His younger brothers John and James Garth were both MPs for Leeds. The fourth brother, Henry Cowper, was Mayor of Leeds in 1842–1843. Marshall's daughter, Elizabeth Margaret, was the mother of the diplomat, Sir Cecil Spring Rice.
