Family and Education

b. aft. 1552, 2nd s. of John Marche of Rye by his w. Joan. m. Agnes, at least 6s. 1da.

Offices Held

Chamberlain, Rye 1555, jurat by 1557, mayor 1561-2.

Biography

Marche was not of age when his father made his will in March 1543. He inherited some leasehold farms and cattle, and went on to buy further property in and just outside Rye, including a slaughterhouse from the Rye corporation. In April 1560 Edward, Lord Windsor, whose family had received a crown grant of estates belonging to St. Bartholomew’s hospital at Rye at the dissolution of the monasteries, sold a large part of them to a syndicate of four, including Marche. The partners divided the land among themselves, Marche’s share being mainly in Rye, Peasmarsh and Udimore. Some of it he had resold before the end of 1561. His will and inquisition post mortem mention property in Playden and Iden, Sussex; Stone, Ivychurch, Romney Marsh and Wittersham, Kent; and houses in Rye, including one in ‘Mr. Rucke’s land’, bought from Goddard White of Winchelsea. He was paid £11 4s. 0d. for his services as Member of Parliament, at the rate of 2s. a day for 112 days. He died 3 Feb. 1563, perhaps of the plague, which killed over 500 persons in Rye that year. The widow had presumably remarried by April 1566, when the wardship of his son and heir Simon was granted to George Chatfield and his wife Agnes. Simon died in 1584.

E. Suss. RO, Rye mss; PCC 15 Chayre, 24 Spert; Herts. RO, Halsey mss; C142/141/23; Egerton 2094, f. 191; Suss. Rec. Soc. iii. 29 seq.; CPR, 1558-60, p. 367; 1560-3, pp. 87, 136; 1563-6, p. 469; Suss. Arch. Colls. lxxxiii. 80; W. Holloway, Hist. Rye, 306.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes