Family and Education

b. by 1479, s. of Henry Marlerof Coventry by Joan. m. (1) Alice, da. of John Padlond, 1s. 1da., (2) Joan, 1s.2

Offices Held

Warden, Coventry 1500-1, sheriff 1504-5, mayor 1509-10, alderman Feb. 1523.3

Biography

In the early 14th century the Marlers were small landowners, probably peasants, in Warwickshire. They migrated to Coventry during the 1460s and in the years from 1469 to 1540 provided a dynasty of merchants-cum-civic officials. Richard Marler, of the second generation of the dynasty, was a grocer. He became one of the three or four richest merchants outside London and the richest man in Coventry, paying on goods valued at 1,700 marks, more than one-ninth of the city’s contribution to the subsidy of 1523. Wealth, experience and closeness to Wolsey fitted him for election to the Parliament of 1523 and would have done so earlier in the reign for a Parliament for which the Coventry returns are lost. On his return to Coventry after the dissolution he and his fellow-Member Ralph Swillington were thanked for their efforts and their report on the work of the Parliament. For the next two years Marler continued to figure in civic affairs but in 1526 his name disappears from the Coventry records, probably because of illness. By a will made on 12 Jan. 1527 and witnessed by John Bond he asked for burial in Holy Trinity church and provided for his wife Joan, relatives and servants and named his wife and surviving son William executors. Having added a codicil on 20 Mar. endowing masses to be said for his soul and settling lands on William, he died on 4 June, when his heir was found to be his four year-old granddaughter Christiana, who later married Thomas Bond.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: S. M. Thorpe

Notes

• 1. LP Hen. VIII, iv. app. 1.
• 2. Date of birth estimated from first reference. C1/1199/42; 142/46/36; PCC 20 Porch.
• 3. Coventry Leet Bk. (EETS cxxxiv), ii. 599, 603, 624; LP Hen. VIII, iv.
• 4. Trans. R. Hist. Soc. (ser. 5), vi. 6, 9; VCH Warws. ii. 265; viii. 209; HMC 15th Rep. X, 328; E179/192/125; Coventry accts. var. 18, f. 44v; Letters 1, f. 62; Coventry Leet Bk. ii. 591-731 passim; Dugdale, Warws. 173; PCC 20 Porch; C142/46/36.