The English surname Marsh is a topographic name for someone who lived by or in a marsh or fen, Middle English mershe (Old English mersc), or a habitational name from any of various minor places named with this word, for example in Shropshire and Sussex. The name is first recorded in 1194 when Godard le la Merse is recorded in the “Pipe Rolls of Somerset.” One of the earliest settlers in America was John Marsh, aged 26 yrs., who sailed from the Port of London in May 1635, aboard the "Plaine Joane", bound for Virginia. Today there are more than 61,000 bearers of the family name Marsh living in The United States.