Nicholas Marston (died 14 May 1624)Will of Nicholas Marston, Prebendary of Saint Peter Exeter, Devon (P.C.C. 1624, Byrde quire). was a 16th century English priest.CCEd Person Record ID 99212: Marston, Nicholas (active 1571-1624). It is uncertain whether his appointment as Archdeacon of Cornwall in 1574 took effect. He was one of three brothers (at least two of whom attended the University of Oxford), who had ecclesiastical careers in the Cathedral church of Exeter, and in that diocese within Cornwall and Devon. Their father was a wealthy citizen Haberdasher in the city of London who gave financial support to the early career of his wife's brother William Bradbridge, later bishop of Exeter. Thomas's daughters made advantageous City marriages, and the network of their mercantile patronage and relations with the bishops, deans and chapters of Exeter and of Bath and Wells, and with the University of Oxford, spanned several decades of the Tudor and early Stuart period.
Life Background and Education
Nicholas Marston was the second son of Thomas Marston, citizen and Haberdasher and Merchant Adventurer of London, probably by his wife Sybill (since that name was given to at least three granddaughters): his elder brother William was born c. 1544. Sybill was certainly the wife of Thomas in 1557, when Robert Austyn, Grocer, received licence to grant his messuage and lands in St Mary Colechurch to them and their heirs.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Philip and Mary, IV: 1557-1558 (HMSO 1939), p. 9 (HathiTrust).'St. Mary Colechurch 105/24', in D.J. Keene and V. Harding, Historical Gazetteer of London Before the Great Fire Cheapside; Parishes of All Hallows Honey Lane, St Martin Pomary, St Mary Le Bow, St Mary Colechurch and St Pancras Soper Lane (Centre for Metropolitan Studies, London 1987), pp. 552-56, "Introduction", and "24F" (British History Online accessed 17 October 2022). Sybill was a sister of William Bradbridge of Chichester, the future bishop of Exeter (as shown by Henry Chauncy),'Pedigree of Robinson', in H. Chauncy, The Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire (Ben Griffin et al., London 1700), p. 302 (Google). and is claimed as "my sister Marston" in the will of Alice Barnham, nee Bradbridge.L.C. Orlin, Locating Privacy in Tudor London (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 284 and passim (Google). Thomas Marston acquired his property at The Bell in St Stephen Coleman Street in 1545.'465. Grants in March, 1545. Licence to alienate (Ric. Kyng)', J. Gairdner and R.H. Brodie (eds), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. XX Part 1: January-July, 1545 (HMSO, London 1905), p. 229, col. b (Internet Archive).
The Composition Books of the Office of First Fruits and Tenths show that Thomas Marston, Haberdasher, of St Mary Colechurch, London, with William Bradbridge, mercer (thrice mayor of Chichester, died 1546), stood surety for compositions on behalf of William Bradbridge (future bishop) for the vicarage of East Dean, West Sussex, in 1541; for the chantry of Northiam, Sussex, also 1541; and, with Francis Barnham, Draper, for West Thorney in Sussex in 1547. Francis Barnham married Alice Bradbridge (daughter of mercer William), at about this time.'Barnham', in J.J. Howard and G.J. Armytage (eds), The Visitation of London in the year 1568, etc., Harleian Society I (London 1869), p. 88 (Internet Archive).L.C. Orlin, 'Barnham [nee Bradbridge], Alice (1523-1604)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP 2004), Online update 2015. In the 2nd and 3rd years of Edward VI, Marston was churchwarden of St Mary Colechurch,'The Certificathe of Colchurche of Chepe Ward in London', in T. Milbourn, The History of the Church of St Mildred the Virgin, Poultry, with some particulars of the Church of St Mary Colechurch (John Russell Smith, London 1872), at pp. 41-42 (Internet Archive). and was of St Mildred, Poultry, for a composition for Bradbridge for St Mary's Hospital, Chichester, in August 1554.'William Bradbridge', in T.F. Mayer and C.B. Walters, The Correspondence of Reginald Pole, IV: Biographical Companion: The British Isles. St Andrews Studies in Reformation History (Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot 2008), p. 80 (Google). In December 1558 Thomas Marston and Frances Barnham were two of the group of six Guildsmen commoners deputed by the Court of Aldermen to prepare the section of Queen Elizabeth's coronation route around the Great Conduit in Cheap.'Dec. 7th 1558: The Court of Aldermen allocates responsibilities to the Guildsmen', in G. Warkentin and J.C. Parsons (eds), The Queen's Majesty's Passage and Related Documents, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies (Victoria University, Toronto, Ontario 2004), Appendix II, pp. 117-19, at p. 118, citing 'London Court of Aldermen, Repertories', XIV (1558-61), fols 97r - 98r.
These connections go some way to explain the advances of Marston's sons in the diocese of Exeter under Bradbridge's jurisdiction over the following decades. Nicholas was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating BA on 1 February 1564/65 and MA 9 July 1567.
William, Nicholas and Vincent Marston
The elder brother of Nicholas, William Marston,A. a Wood, ed. P. Bliss, Fasti Oxonienses, or Annals of the University of Oxford, New edition with additions (F.C. and J. Rivington, London 1815), Part I: 1500-1640, col. 196 (anno 1574) (Google). after some study at the University of Cambridge, was presented in April 1560 (aged 16)CCEd, Liber Cleri Detail Record ID 147763. to the rectory of Shobrooke, Devon, by his father Thomas Marston of the city of London (to whom in 1549 Bishop John Vesey had assigned the next presentation). This institution was performed with John Incent as Marston's proxy, under the jurisdiction of Matthew Parker, during the vacancy in the see of Exeter created by the deposition of Bishop Turberville, who had refused the oath of supremacy.CCEd, Appointment Evidence Record ID 201632, citing the Parker Register. (Thomas Marston had attempted to present Richard Prestwood in 1555, but a caveat was entered.)G. Oliver, Ecclesiastical Antiquities in Devon. Being Observations on Several Churches in Devonshire, with some Memoranda for the History of Cornwall (J.B. Nichols and Son, London/W.C. Featherstone, Exeter 1842), III, p. 58. At William Bradbridge's succession to that bishopric (1571-1578), William Marston (the elder brother) was collated a prebendary of St Peter's Cathedral church of Exeter in May 1571, received the rectory of Bridestowe with Sourton in June 1571,CCEd Appointment Evidence Record ID 85714. and his appointment as precentor of Exeter Cathedral on 19 December of that year,G. Oliver, Lives of the Bishops of Exeter, and a History of the Cathedral (William Roberts, Exeter 1861), p. 279 (Google). at which time he held the degree of Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.).
Nicholas, then, the second brother, was collated under Bradbridge in June 1571 to the perpetual vicarage of St Gluvias with the free chapel of Budock, and in February 1571/72 as prebendary of Exeter Cathedral, being installed in the rectory of Clayhidon one month later.'Marston, Nicholas (Marson)', in J. Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714 (Oxford, 1891), pp. 956-982 (British History Online, accessed 16 October 2022). In May 1572 he supplicated at Oxford for the degree of Bachelor of Divinity, but was not admitted. The Crown added the rectory of Exbourne in July 1572,CCEd Appointment Evidence Record ID 85778. and as residentiary canon of Exeter he therefore vacated St Gluvias in December 1572. On 10 June 1574 he was installed Archdeacon of Cornwall, at the presentation of his father Thomas Marston of London.CCEd Appointment Evidence Record ID 85865. However this appointment may have been provisional or adjuvant, for Thomas Somaster had been presented to that office by the Crown in 1570, and it was by the death of Somaster in 1603 that it next became vacant. Nicholas Marston supplicated for B.D. again on 19 March 1574/75, and again Christ Church did not admit him, nor several other applicants (including John Woolton), to the degree.
The third brother, Vincent Marston, was an exhibitioner at Oriel College, Oxford in November 1567, but he had left his place there by March 1568/69, and took his BA from St Alban's Hall (Merton College, Oxford) on 16 February 1570/71.'Marston, Vincent (Merston)', in J. Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714 (Oxford, 1891), pp. 956-982 (British History Online, accessed 16 October 2022). Vincent's ordination as deacon on 27 September 1572, and as priest on 29 September, took place in his brother William's parish church of Shobrooke.CCEd Ordination Records ID 87876 and ID 87878. He became chaplain of Exeter College, Oxford on 12 October 1572 and graduated MA on 1 July 1573. In July 1576 Sir Gavin Carew presented him to the living of Clare, one of the four portions of the church of Tiverton, and on 12 December 1576, in pleno jure, William Bradbridge collated him to the rectory of Lezant, Cornwall (which the bishop held in commendam).CCEd Appointment Evidence Records ID 301866 and ID 85976. Appointed a canon of Exeter Cathedral, Marston resigned the chaplaincy of Exeter College, and held Lezant until 1581.C.R. Boase, Registrum Collegii Exoniensis. Register of Exeter College, Oxford, Oxford Historical Society: New Edition (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1894), p. 77 (Google).
Their father Thomas Marston, the haberdasher Edmond Calthorp and grocer John Wanton, were in 1576 deemed to be "men well acquainted with the manner of exchanges and rechanges, to and from the City of London, and to and from foreign parts"; they were formally appointed to issue warrants to all persons for any such exchange and rechange of coin, under their own signatures or handwriting.R. Ruding, Annals of the Coinage of Britain and its Dependencies, 2nd, corrected edition, 5 vols (Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, and Jones, London 1816), IV, pp. 197-98 (Google). Marston died in 1581 naming his three sons his successive heirs subject to lifetime tenures by his widow Sybill, the escheator finding William Marston, aged 30 and above (37, if 16 in 1560), to be principal heir.'Inquisition: Thomas Marston, Haberdasher', in E.A. Fry, Abstracts of Inquisitiones Post Mortem for the City of London, Tudor Period, Part III: 1577-1603 (British Record Society, Limited, London 1908/Kraus reprint, Nendeln 1968), pp. 57-58 (Internet Archive).
In 1581 Nicholas gave up Clayhidon and, under patronage of Sir William Courtney, became rector of Moretonhampstead, Devon, and held it until his death 43 years later.CCEd Appointment Evidence Record ID 86108, Vacancy Evidence Record ID 108573. In the same year, Vincent Marston was presented to the rectory of Lanreath, Cornwall, by his brother William the precentor of Exeter, to whom the advowson had been granted by Sibilla Trevanian of St Michael Caerhays.CCEd Appointment Evidence Record ID 86095. A vacancy is reported in the rectory of Lanreath in October 1583, after which Vincent's name appears only (as of Lezant) in a burial record for Lanrethon, pointing to his death late in 1583. In 1584 William Marston was installed as Rector of Caerhays Stephens (St Stephen-in-Brannel) with the chapelry of St Dennis, in Cornwall, Bishop John Woolton and the Crown being patrons.
Merchant kinsfolk and bishop Godwin