Sir John Marsham, 1st Baronet |
Copper engraving of Marsham, Johannes Marsham Eques Auratus
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Born |
23 August 1602 |
Died |
25 May 1685 (aged 82)
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Occupation(s) |
clerk, Member of Parliament |
Known for |
chronologist |
Sir John Marsham, 1st Baronet (23 August 1602 – 25 May 1685) was an English antiquary known as a writer on chronology. He was also a chancery clerk and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1661.
Life
Marsham was second son of Thomas Marsham, alderman of London, by Magdalen, daughter of Richard Springham, a London merchant. After attending Westminster School he matriculated at St John's College, Oxford, on 22 October 1619; he graduated B.A. on 17 February 1623, M.A. on 5 July 1625. He spent the winter of 1625 in Paris. In 1626 and 1627 he travelled in France, Italy, and Germany, and then returned to London, where he became a member of the Middle Temple in 1627. In 1629 he went through Holland and Gelderland to the siege of 's-Hertogenbosch in Brabant; and then by Flushing to Boulogne and Paris in the retinue of Sir Thomas Edmondes, ambassador extraordinary at the court of Louis XIII.
Marsham was made one of the six clerks in chancery on 15 February 1638. On the outbreak of the First English Civil War he followed the king to Oxford, and was consequently deprived of his place by Parliament. After the surrender of Oxford he returned to London (1646), and having compounded for his estate, he lived in retirement at his seat of Whorn Place, in the parish of Cuxton, Kent.
In April 1660, Marsham was elected a Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochester in the Convention Parliament. At the Restoration, he was restored to his place in chancery, and was knighted. On 12 August 1663 he was created a baronet. He was allowed to hand over his clerkship to his son Robert on 20 October 1680.
Marsham died at Bushey Hall, Hertfordshire, on 25 May 1685, and was buried in Cuxton Church. By Elizabeth (1612–1689), daughter of Sir William Hammond of St. Albans Court in Nonington, Kent, he had two sons, John and Robert, and a daughter Elizabeth. He was succeeded initially by the eldest son John, who purchased the Mote in Maidstone and who died in 1692 when High Sheriff of Kent, but when John's own son John died young the baronetcy and Mote estate reverted to Robert.
Works
Marsham had a reputation in his day for his knowledge of history, chronology, and languages. According to Wotton, Marsham was the first who made Egyptian antiquities intelligible. Hallam also commended his work.
He wrote Diatriba Chronologica, London, 1649, a dissertation in which he examined difficulties in the chronology of the Old Testament. Most of it was afterwards inserted in his more elaborate Chronicus Canon Ægypticus, Ebraicus, Græcus, et disquisitiones, London, 1672, a beautifully printed book (other editions, 4to, Leipzig, 1676, and 4to, Franeker, 1699, but both inaccurate). He wrote also the preface to the first volume of Roger Dodsworth and William Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum (1655), which is entitled Propylaion Johannis Marshami; it is a complex survey of English monasticism.
He left unfinished Canonis Chronici liber quintus: sive Imperium Persicum, De Provinciis et Legionibus Romanis, De re nummaria, and other treatises. His nephew Thomas Stanley dedicated to him his History of Philosophy (1655).
Marquesses Townshend, Earls of Romney, and Baronets of Cuckston
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Baronet of Cuckston, 1663 |
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Robert Sidney (1595–1677) Earl of Leicester
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John Marsham (1602–1685) 1st Baronet of Cuckston
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Earl of Romney (1st creation), 1694 |
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Dorothy Spencer Countess of Sunderland (1617–1684) |
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Philip Sidney Earl of Leicester (1619–1698) |
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Algernon Sidney (1623–1683) |
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Lady Lucy Sidney (1630–1685) |
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Henry Sydney (1641–1704) 1st Earl of Romney
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John Marsham (1637–1692) 2nd Baronet of Cuckston
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Earldom extinct, 1704 |
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Baron Townshend, of Lynn Regis in the County of Norfolk, 1661 Viscount Townshend of Raynham in the County of Norfolk, 1682 |
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Horatio Townshend (1630–1687) 1st Viscount Townshend, 1st Baron Townshend
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Thomas Pelham (1653–1712) |
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John Marsham (1679–1696) 3rd Baronet of Cuckston
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Charles Townshend (1674–1738) 2nd Viscount Townshend, 2nd Baron Townshend
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Elizabeth Pelham (1681–1711) |
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Robert Marsham (1650–1703) 4th Baronet of Cuckston
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Baron Romney, 1716 |
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Charles Townshend (1700–1764) 3rd Viscount Townshend, 3rd Baron Townshend
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Thomas Townshend (1701–1780) |
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Robert Marsham (1685–1724) 1st Baron Romney, 5th Baronet of Cuckston
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Marquess Townshend, 1787 |
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Baron Sydney of Chiselhurst in the County of Kent, 1783 Viscount Sydney (2nd creation) of St Leonards, 1789 |
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Charlotte Townshend (d. 1770) Baroness Ferrers of Chartley suo jure, Baroness Compton
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George Townshend (1724–1807) 1st Marquess Townshend, 4th Viscount Townshend, 4th Baron Townshend
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Thomas Townshend (1733–1800) 1st Viscount Sydney
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Robert Marsham (1712–1794) 2nd Baron Romney
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Earl of Leicester (6th creation), 1784 |
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Earl of Romney (2nd creation) and Viscount Marsham of The Mote in the County of Kent, 1801 |
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George Townshend (1753–1811) 2nd Marquess Townshend, 1st Earl of Leicester, 5th Viscount Townshend, 5th Baron Townshend, Baron Ferrers of Chartley, Baron Compton
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John Townshend (1757–1783) |
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John Townshend (1764–1831) 2nd Viscount Sydney
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Charles Marsham (1744–1811) 1st Earl of Romney, 1st Viscount Marsham, 3rd Baron Romney
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George Townshend (1778–1885) 3rd Marquess Townshend, 2nd Earl of Leicester, 6th Viscount Townshend, 6th Baron Townshend, Baron Ferrers of Chartley, Baron Compton
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John Townshend (1798–1863) 4th Marquess Townshend, 7th Viscount Townshend, 7th Baron Townshend
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Mary Elizabeth Marsham (1794–1847) |
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Charles Marsham (1777–1845) 2nd Earl of Romney, 2nd Viscount Marsham, 4th Baron Romney
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Barony Compton and Barony Ferrers of Chartley abeyance and Earldom of Leicester (6th creation) extinct, 1885 |
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Earl Sydney of Scadbury in the County of Kent, 1874 |
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John Townshend (1805–1890) 1st Earl Sydney, 3rd Viscount Sydney
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Charles Marsham (1808–1874) 3nd Earl of Romney, 3rd Viscount Marsham, 5th Baron Romney
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Earldom of Sydney extinct, 1890 |
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John Villiers Stuart Townshend (1831–1899) 5th Marquess Townshend, 8th Viscount Townshend, 8th Baron Townshend
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Charles Marsham (1841–1905) 4th Earl of Romney, 4th Viscount Marsham, 6th Baron Romney
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John James Dudley Stuart Townshend (1866–1921) 6th Marquess Townshend, 9th Viscount Townshend, 9th Baron Townshend
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Charles Marsham (1864–1933) 5th Earl of Romney, 5th Viscount Marsham, 7th Baron Romney
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Reginald Hastings Marsham (1865–1922) |
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Sydney Edward Marsham (1879–1952) |
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George John Patrick Dominic Townshend (1916–2010) 7th Marquess Townshend, 10th Viscount Townshend, 10th Baron Townshend
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Charles Marsham (1892–1975) 6th Earl of Romney, 6th Viscount Marsham, 8th Baron Romney
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Michael Marsham (1910–2004) 7th Earl of Romney, 7th Viscount Marsham, 9th Baron Romney
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Peter William Marsham (1913–1970) |
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Charles George Townshend (b. 1945) 8th Marquess Townshend, 11th Viscount Townshend, 11th Baron Townshend
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Julian Marsham (b. 1948) 8th Earl of Romney, 8th Viscount Marsham, 9th Baron Romney
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Thomas Charles Townshend (b. 1977) styled Viscount Raynham
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David Charles Marsham (b. 1977) styled Viscount Marsham
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Heir apparent to the Marquessate Townshend |
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Heir apparent to the Earldom of Romney |
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Rafe Thomas Townshend (b. 2014) |
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James Julian Marsham (b. 2014) |
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