s
mother, Nancy Ann, thus obtained her freedom, and by the terms of the
will she was put to the millinery trade, which she fully mastered, and
meantime obtained an elementary knowledge of reading, writing, and
arithmetic. She married Albert Summers, and bore to him two children,
viz., George Summers and Mary Catharine. He ran away to prevent being
sold, and she afterward married Samuel Boyd, to whom she bore three
children, viz., Francis Asbury, Marshall William, and Mary Ellen. His
father, Samuel, was the son of Hon. Samuel Boyd, of New York. He was
noted for his independence of character; was a valuable but unruly
slave. He was allowed an opportunity to purchase his freedom, and this
he began to do, and had paid $250, three fourths of the price, when
his master sold him to Tennessee. He promptly ran away from his new
master, but unwilling to forsake his family, went back to Kentucky.
His master pursued and overtook him at Lexington, where he had
stopped. He refused to go back to Tennessee, and once more was
permitted to select a master, and finally to again contract for his
freedom, which he this time succeeded in obtaining. In consequence of
his mother's emancipation, Marshall was free when he first saw the
light of day. By occupation his father was a hemp-breaker, rope-maker,
and farmer. The last he elected to follow after he was free. He
employed his boys as farmers, but his mother strenuously opposed it,
wishing better opportunities than could be thus afforded for their
education. She at length succeeded in carrying her point.

In religion his father at first inclined to the Baptists, of which
Church he became a deacon in the congregation of Rev. Mr. Ferrill, of
Pleasant Green Church, Lexington. Later he became dissatisfied with
the Baptists, and united with the African Methodists at Frankfort, Ky.
He finally went back to the Baptist Church and died in that faith.

Marshall's mother, and all her people, so far as known, were
Methodists. His early training and first and only religious
impressions were Methodistic, which Church, after his conversion, he
joined. His father had no knowledge of letters, so that all his home
instruction came from his mother. Her text-books were the Bible,
Methodist Catechism, and Webster's Elementary Spelling Book. And in
these young Marshall became very proficient. He afterward attended
school daily to Rev. John Tibbs, an African Methodist preacher, who
came from Cincinnati to Lexing