— Ch. 1 · A Clerk's Son In London —
Alfred Marshall.
~4 min read · Ch. 1 of 7
Alfred Marshall was born on the 26th of July 1842 in Bermondsey, a district within London. His father William worked as a clerk and cashier at the Bank of England while his mother Rebecca inherited property from her butcher father Thomas Oliver. The family belonged to a West Country clerical lineage that included a great-great-grandfather known as the Reverend William Marshall. This ancestor earned local fame for twisting horseshoes with his bare hands to frighten blacksmiths into fearing they blew their bellows for the devil. Marshall grew up in Clapham under the strict influence of his devout Evangelical father who wrote an epic poem in a self-invented Anglo-Saxon language. That rigid upbringing shaped Marshall's later philosophical approach to economics and social reform.
The Cambridge Mathematical Tripos
Marshall attended Merchant Taylors' School before entering St John's College at Cambridge University. He achieved the rank of Second Wrangler in the 1865 Cambridge Mathematical Tripos which demonstrated exceptional aptitude in mathematics. A mental crisis led him to abandon physics studies and switch his focus to philosophy instead. He began with metaphysics specifically regarding the philosophical foundation of knowledge in relation to theology. Metaphysics eventually guided him toward ethics through a Sidgwickian version of utilitarianism. Ethics then led him to economics because he believed it played an essential role in improving working class material conditions. His early interest in Georgism liberalism socialism trade unions women's education poverty and progress reflected these formative social philosophies.Teaching And The First Marriage