MARSH, Simon, of Totnes, Devon.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1399

Family and Education

Offices Held

Biography

Two years after his only known return to Parliament for Totnes, Marsh took possession of property in the town on behalf of another inhabitant. He became a member of the guild merchant before 1405, and it may be assumed that he was engaged in trade of some sort, although his occupation is nowhere recorded. His income would seem to have been small, and the local assessors for the parliamentary subsidies collected in Totnes in 1414 charged him no more than 8d., although two years later he paid. 1s. He was, however, sufficiently well-off to employ a servant. Marsh served on the town jury in 1405, 1424 and 1425.1 In 1415, meanwhile, he himself had been indicted by a similar panel for a breach of the peace, and in the following year the jurors said that unless he extricated a fellow townsman from proceedings in the King’s bench, he ought to be expelled from the freedom of the borough. Marsh was still living in 1434.2

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

  • 1. H.R. Watkin, Totnes Priory and Town, 304, 306, 307, 323-5, 329, 349, 351.
  • 2. Ibid. 331, 334, 370.