Marcus Child came to Stanstead from Massachusetts in 1808, employed as a clerk by Levi Bigelow. In 1812, he became a partner in a business of drugs and medicine, eventually buying out the concern.
He represented Stanstead County in the Provincial Parliament from 1829 to 1831 and from 1834 to 1837.
He was appointed Postmaster and Magistrate but, at the outbreak of the Rebellion in 1837, he was identified with the Reform cause and was then deprived of his offices, proscribed and forced to leave the country and return to the United States.
After the Rebellion, he came back to Canada and was re-elected, defeating Moses French Colby in 1840.
Marcus Child is remembered as one of the founders of the Stanstead Seminary, having obtained a grant from the Legislature for the building of this school in 1829.
In 1845, he was appointed School Inspector for the District of St. Francis. He removed his family to Coaticook in 1855 where he died in 1859.

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