Sir John Marsham, 1st Baronet

For others of this name, see Marsham baronets.

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.

Sir John Marsham, 1st Baronet
Copper engraving of Marsham, Johannes Marsham Eques Auratus
Born	(1602-08-23)23 August 1602
Died	25 May 1685(1685-05-25) (aged 82) Bushey Hall, Hertfordshire
Occupation(s)	clerk, Member of Parliament
Known for	chronologist

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

Shirley Baronet of Staunton Harold in the County of Leicester, 1611 George Shirley 1559–1622 1st Baronet Baronet of Cuckston, 1663 Henry Shirley 1589–1633 2nd Baronet Robert Sidney 1595–1677 Earl of Leicester John Marsham 1602–1685 1st Baronet of Cuckston Earl of Romney (1st creation), 1694 Charles Shirley (1623–1646) 3rd Baronet Robert Shirley 1629–1656 4th Baronet Lady Lucy Sidney 1630–1685 Henry Sydney 1641–1704 1st Earl of Romney John Marsham 1637–1692 2nd Baronet of Cuckston Earldom extinct, 1704 Baron Ferrers of Chartley abeyance terminated, 1677 Baron Townshend, of Lynn Regis in the County of Norfolk, 1661 Viscount Townshend of Raynham in the County of Norfolk, 1682 Seymour Shirley 1647–1667 5th Baronet Robert Shirley 1650–1717 Earl Ferrers, 14th Baron Ferrers of Chartley, 7th Shirley Baronet, of Staunton Harold Thomas Pelham 1653–1712 Horatio Townshend 1630–1687 1st Viscount Townshend and Baron Townshend John Marsham 1679–1696 3rd Baronet of Cuckston Robert Shirley 1668–1669 6th Baronet Robert Shirley 1673–1699 Elizabeth Pelham 1681–1711 Charles Townshend 1674–1738 2nd Viscount Townshend and Baron Townshend Robert Marsham 1650–1703 4th Baronet of Cuckston Baron Romney, 1716 Elizabeth Compton 1694–1741 15th Baroness Ferrers of Chartley Charles Townshend 1700–1764 3rd Viscount Townshend and Baron Townshend Thomas Townshend 1701–1780 Robert Marsham 1685–1724 1st Baron Romney, 5th Baronet of Cuckston Baron Ferrers of Chartley resolved, 1749 Marquess Townshend, 1787 Baron Sydney of Chiselhurst in the County of Kent, 1783 Viscount Sydney (2nd creation) of St Leonards, 1789 Charlotte Townshend d. 1770 16th Baroness Ferrers of Chartley, Baroness Compton George Townshend 1724–1807 1st Marquess Townshend, 4th Viscount Townshend and Baron Townshend Thomas Townshend 1733–1800 1st Viscount Sydney Robert Marsham 1712–1794 2nd Baron Romney Earl of Leicester (6th creation), 1784 Earl of Romney (2nd creation) and Viscount Marsham of The Mote in the County of Kent, 1801 George Townshend 1753–1811 2nd Marquess Townshend, 1st Earl of Leicester, 5th Viscount Townshend and Baron Townshend, 17th Baron Ferrers of Chartley, Baron Compton John Townshend 1757–1783 John Townshend 1764–1831 2nd Viscount Sydney Charles Marsham 1744–1811 1st Earl of Romney and Viscount Marsham, 3rd Baron Romney George Townshend 1778–1885 3rd Marquess Townshend, 2nd Earl of Leicester, 6th Viscount Townshend and Baron Townshend, 18th Baron Ferrers of Chartley, Baron Compton John Townshend 1798–1863 4th Marquess Townshend, 7th Viscount Townshend and Baron Townshend Mary Elizabeth Marsham 1794–1847 Charles Marsham 1777–1845 2nd Earl of Romney and Viscount Marsham, 4th Baron Romney Barony Ferrers of Chartley and Barony Compton in abeyance and Earldom of Leicester (6th creation) extinct, 1885 Earl Sydney of Scadbury in the County of Kent, 1874 John Townshend 1805–1890 1st Earl Sydney, 3rd Viscount Sydney Charles Marsham 1808–1874 3nd Earl of Romney and Viscount Marsham, 5th Baron Romney Earldom of Sydney extinct, 1890 John Villiers Stuart Townshend 1831–1899 5th Marquess Townshend, 8th Viscount Townshend and Baron Townshend Charles Marsham 1841–1905 4th Earl of Romney and Viscount Marsham, 6th Baron Romney John James Dudley Stuart Townshend 1866–1921 6th Marquess Townshend, 9th Viscount Townshend and Baron Townshend Charles Marsham 1864–1933 5th Earl of Romney and Viscount Marsham, 7th Baron Romney Reginald Hastings Marsham 1865–1922 Sydney Edward Marsham 1879–1952 George John Patrick Dominic Townshend 1916–2010 7th Marquess Townshend, 10th Viscount Townshend and Baron Townshend Charles Marsham 1892–1975 6th Earl of Romney and Viscount Marsham, 8th Baron Romney Michael Marsham 1910–2004 7th Earl of Romney and Viscount Marsham, 9th Baron Romney Peter William Marsham 1913–1970 Charles George Townshend b. 1945 8th Marquess Townshend, 11th Viscount Townshend and Baron Townshend Julian Marsham b. 1948 8th Earl of Romney and Viscount Marsham, 9th Baron Romney Thomas Charles Townshend b. 1977 styled Viscount Raynham David Charles Marsham b. 1977 styled Viscount Marsham Heir apparent to the Marquess of Townshend Heir apparent to the Earl of Romney Rafe Thomas Townshend b. 2014 James Julian Marsham b. 2014

References

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Goodwin, Gordon (1893). "Marsham, John". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 36. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Further reading

• Black, Shirley Burgoyne (2004). "Marsham, Sir John, first baronet (1602–1685)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/18160. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)