In these he was a giant; in everything else, whether as a cobbler, schoolmaster, indigo-planter, nay, even as father of a family, he was a failure: but his steady, faithful purpose enabled him so to use that one talent as to make him the pioneer and the support as well as the example of numbers better qualified for the actual work than himself.
His loss left Dr.Marshman alone, and suffering from melancholy more and more, as well as much harassed by difficulties as to the resources, and by captious complaints from home.

In 1836, a great shock was given to his nerves by the danger of his daughter.

She was the wife of Lieutenant Henry Havelock, a young officer, who, deeply impressed by Dr.Marshman's piety, had joined his congregation, and who was destined to become in after years one of the most heroic and able of the defenders of the British cause in India.

During his absence, she and her three children had been left at Landour, when their bungalow caught fire in the middle of the night, and blazed up with a rapidity due to its light, dry materials.

She rushed out with her baby in her arms, but in crossing the verandah tripped and fell, losing her hold of the child.