Francis Marbury - Early Life

Early Life

Francis Marbury, born in London and baptised there on 27 October 1555, was one of six children of William Marbury (1524–1581), and the youngest of three sons. His father, who possibly attended Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1544, was a lawyer in Lincolnshire, a Member of Parliament and a member of the Middle Temple, where he was admitted "specially ... at the instance of Mr. Francis Barnades" in May 1551, and still active until 1573. His mother was Agnes, the daughter of John Lenton of Old Wynkill, Staffordshire according to historian John Champlin, but genealogist Meredith Colket suggests that Lenton was from Aldwinkle in Northamptonshire, which is much closer to where the Marburys lived. Marbury was likely schooled in London, perhaps at St Paul's, and he became well grounded in Latin as well as learning some Greek. Though he was born and raised in London, his family maintained close ties with Lincolnshire. His older brother, Edward, was knighted there in 1603, and died in 1605 as the High Sheriff of Lincoln.

Marbury matriculated at Christ's College, Cambridge in 1571, but is not known to have graduated. From Cambridge he went to Northamptonshire where he was ordained deacon by Edmund Scambler, Bishop of Peterborough, on 7 January 1578. Though he was young when he became a deacon, he was not ordained as priest until decades later, in 1605. While Marbury was of the Anglican Church, he had decidedly Puritan views. Not all English subjects thought that the queen had gone far enough to cleanse the Anglican Church of Catholic rites and governance, or to ensure that its ministers were capable of saving souls through powerful preaching. The most vocal of these critics were the Puritans, and Marbury was among the most radical of the non-conforming Puritans, the Presbyterians. These more extreme non-conformists wanted to "abolish all the pomp and ceremony of the Church of England and remodel its government according to what they thought was the Bible's simple, consensual pattern." To do this, they would eliminate bishops appointed by the monarchs, and introduce sincere Christians to choose the church's elders (or governors). The church leadership would then consist of two ministers, one a teacher in charge of doctrine, and the other a pastor in charge of people's souls, and also include a ruling lay leader.