John Marsham

second son of Tho. Marsham Citizen and Alderman of London, descended from the antient family of his name in Norfolk, was born in the Parish of S. Barthelmew in London, 23. Aug. 1602, educated in the Coll. School at Westminster under Dr. John Wilson, became a Communer of S. Johns Coll. under the tuition of Mr. Tho. Walker (afterwards Master of Univ. Coll.) in the beginning of the year 1619, took the degrees in Arts, that of Master being compleated in 1625, in which year he went into France and wintred at Paris. In the two following years he visited most parts of that Nation, and of Italy, and some of Germany, and then returned to London. In 1629 he went through Holland and Gelderlandht to the siege of Boldoc or Balduck, and thence, by Flushing, to Bologne and Paris to attend Sir Tho. Edmonds, Embassador extraordinary, to swear the peace at Fountaine Bleau. During his abode in London he studied the Municipal Laws in the Middle Temple, and in 1637/8 he was sworn one of the six Clerks in Chancery. In the beginning of the Civil War, he left London, followed his Majesty and the Great Seal to Oxon and thereupon was sequestred of his said place by the members of Parl. sitting at Westm, plundred and lost to an incredible value. After the surrender of the Garrison of Oxon and the declining of the Kings cause, he returned to London and compounded among several hundreds of Royallists for his real estate: At which time he betook himself wholly to his studies and lived in a retired condition. In the beginning of the year 1660 he served as a Burgess for the City of Rochester in that happy Parliament that recalled the King, and took away the Court of Wards; about which time being restored to his place in Chancery, he had the honor of Knighthood confer’d upon him on the first of July 1660, being then of Whornplace in Kent, and three years after was created a Baronet. He was a person well accomplish’d, exact in Histories whether civil or profane, in Chronology and in the Tongues. Pere Simon calls him in a preface to a work of his Le grand Marsham de Angleterr, and Monsieur Corcaoy the K. of France his Libr. keeper and all the great and learned men of Europe his contemporaries acknowledg him to be one of the greatest Antiquaries and most accurate and learned Writer of his time, as appears by their testimonies under their hands and seals in their letters to him, which would make a vol. in fol. He hath written,

Diatriba Chronologica. Lond. 1649. qu. Most of which was afterwards remitted into the book that follows.

Chronicus Canon Aegyptiacus, Ebraicus, Graecus & disquisitiones. Lond. 1672. fol. This was reprinted in Lower Germany in qu. with a new Index, and Preface, wherein are given to the author, very great Encomiums by a Forreigner unknown to him. There are many things worthy to be inserted thence, which, for brevity sake I shall now pass by. He also wrot the Preface set before the first vol. of Monasticon Anglicanum. Lond. 1655. which he entit.

ΠΡΟΠΥΛΑΙΟΝ Johannis Marshami. Printed in 7 sheets and an half in fol. but much disliked and disrellish’d by the Rom. Cath. party. He also left behind him at his death unfinished. (1) Canonis Chronici liber quintus: sive Imperium Persicum. (2) De Provinciis & Legionibus Romanis. (3) De re nummaria, &c. At length departing this mortal life at Bushy hall in Hertfordshire on the 25. of May in sixteen hundred eighty and five, his body was thereupon conveyed to Cuxton near Rochester in Kent (where he had an Estate) and buried in the Church there.1685. He left issue behind him, begotten on the body of Elizabeth Daughter of Sir Will. Hammond of S. Albans in East Kent, two Sons, viz. Sir John Marsham now of Cuxton Baronet, who is writing The History of England much more exact, as ’tis said, than any yet extant, and Sir Robert of Bushy hall Knight, who succeeded his Father in the place of Six Clerk. In the possession of the first of these two is Sir Johns Library, which tho diminished by the fire that hapned in London 1666, yet it is considerable and highly to be valued for the exquisite remarks in the margin of most of the books; and in the possession of the other is his Cabinet of Greek Medals, as curious as any private collection whatsoever.