Person:Philip Marshall (1)

Philip Marshall was born on 5th September 1655 at Luton in Bedfordshire, the eldest of three children of a yeoman named Philip Marshall and his wife Mary Stretcher, who had married the previous year at Willian in Hertfordshire. The family lived at Thrales End, at the southern edge of Luton parish, very close to the border with Harpenden parish in Hertfordshire. The family was clearly moderately comfortably off - when Philip's father died in 1681, he left an estate of over 100 acres of farmland, a farm at Thrales End and a cottage that was tenanted.

Philip married a woman named Elizabeth, but their marriage record has yet to be found. They had two sons, Philip and Joseph, both of whom were baptised at Harpenden in the 1680s.

In 1691, Philip was made a Petty Constable for Harpenden. This was an unpaid but elected post, that tended to be given to people of good standing in the community.^[3]

Philip was still living when his brother James wrote his will (which mentions Philip) in 1719, when Philip would have been 64. Philip has yet to be traced after 1719, but when his wife Elizabeth died in 1724 she was described as a widow, suggesting that Philip must have died between 1719 and 1724, and probably after James's death in 1722, otherwise James would presumably have changed his will to not refer to Philip any more. However, no trace of a burial has been found in that period in the Harpenden parish registers for him.

1. ↑ England. Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. (FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, Findmypast).

   b. 5 Sep 1655, Luton, Bedfordshire, England: Philip son of Philip & Mary Marshall

2. ↑ Estimated date of death - died some time between 1719 and 1724.

   One possibility is that he is the "Philip Marshall From Nightingallane" who died of consumption and was buried on 25th December 1723 at St John's church in Wapping, on the eastern edge of London.

3. ↑ Hertfordshire County Records Sessions Books 1658-1700, Vol. VI, page 442: Quarter Sessions Book Volume 5, 13 July 1691 - Sessions held at Hertford p.128 John Tayler and John Pendered sworn petty constables of Watton in place of John Cranell and Henry Holder, Phillip Marshall of Harding in place of John Malen, and William Weatherhead of Whetthamsted in place of Francis Sibley.