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Henry 'Harry, the Regicide' Colonel MARTEN

I am endeavouring to obtain the maiden name of Henry's mother Elizabeth!!

Henry Marten 'The Regicide' (1602-1680) a very prominent figure during the Civil War, was one of the 59 signatories of King Charles I death warrant in 1649. Born in 1602 opposite Merton College Church at Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, he was the son of Sir Henry Marten Senior of Longworth & Hinton Waldrist (Berkshire). He died on 9th September 1680 at Chepstow Castle, Monmouthshire.

His father Henry Marten Senior, was a Judge of the Admiralty Court and distinguished civil lawyer.

In all biographies, including The National Biographical Index there is a mix up over his wives. He actually married twice. His first wife was Elizabeth Lovelace, daughter of Sir Richard. They had three daughters before Elizabeth died in childbirth, or shortly afterwards. In 1635 he married Margaret Stanton, a widow (daughter of Francis WEST and Alice CHENEY) and by her had 1 son and 4 daughters, the youngest of which was apparently Rebecca. It is thought the WEST's came from Oulton in Yorkshire in the mid to late 1500s. They were grocers and 'silk men' in London in the early 1600s.

Rebecca Marten is said to have been born in Shrivenham, one of Berkshire's most westerly villages. The original parts of Shrivenham's parish church are 12th century but there are also 17th century additions. King Henry I granted the church to Cirencester Abbey and the 17th century buildings were given by his father Sir Henry Marten of Longworth, priced at £4,000, who also built the 10 almshouses, which are still lived in even now, and who was a great benefactor to the area.

However, the Shrivenham, Berkshire Parish Records for the period 1575 to 1732 show the baptisms of his children Anne, Francis and Henry, but not Rebecca. It is likely that Henry moved from Shrivenham to Longworth soon after the death of his father in 1641, as he and Margaret married in 1635 and the other children were born at Shrivenham between 1636 and 1640. It is likely that Rebecca was born during the Civil War and the records have been lost. There was quite a lot of fighting near Oxford, which is only a few miles from Longworth and for a while Charles II's headquarters were in Oxford. There was even thought to have been a battle near Harrowdown Hill (of Dr. Kelly fame). It is quite likely, being who they were, that Margaret and the children moved somewhere safer for a while, and Rebecca was born at that time.

Henry and Margaret did not get along and he also had three daughters by his mistress Mary Ward. Henry and Mary's daughters were named Peggy, Sarah (known as Poppet) and Henrietta (called Bacon-Hog).

Henry Marten Jnr. was educated at Oxford University College from where he left with a degree of Bachelor of Arts on January 25th 1619/20 and went to the Inner Temple to study law. John Aubrey says Henry travelled in France, but not Italy. Ivor Waters writes 'Probably in 1636, when Sir Henry Snr. was a very old man and no doubt anxious about the legitimate succession, a marriage was arranged between his son and Margaret, the widow of William Staunton, a rich London grocer. This lady was the daughter of the first Lord Lovelace and the sister of the second (which is incorrect)..They had five or six daughters and one son.'

From 1627-1653 'Hinton Manor' was the home of Henry Marten. As a public man he first became prominent in 1639 when he refused to contribute to a general loan, and in 1640 he entered parliament as one of the members for Berkshire. Henry was a hater of the Court, and had developed, when few thought of overthrowing the Monarchy at the very beginning of the Civil War, into a red-hot republican. Elected to the Short and Long Parliaments as MP for Berkshire, where he came to be known both for his radical republican views and for his witty quips and jokes, he was made Governor of Reading and his keen wit, his plainness of speech and his courageous honesty soon made him a conspicuous man in Parliament.

When the Civil War broke out, he publicly tore up the King's Commission of Array (a document which stated the deployment of troops in the area) and subscribed £1200 to the parliamentary cause, undertaking to raise a regiment of horses to fight the Royalists. He spoke against the Scottish alliance of 1643 and the imposition of the Solemn League and Covenant, and was highly critical of the Presbyterians. As early as 1643, he advocated the destruction of the Royal family, an expression of opinion, which shocked the political feeling of the House of Commons as deeply as his loose life shocked its Puritanical conscience.

He was Imprisoned in the Tower for fourteen days in 1643 and excluded from Parliament for three years but, when readmitted in 1646, he proclaimed his extreme views as boldly as ever. When the Levellers arose, he became one of their leaders and, being among the fiercest advocates of the King's execution, he was, of course, a signatory to King Charles I death warrant and played a leading role in the King's trial, helping to draft the charges against him.

Sarah Barber wrote that 'Marten was certainly already close to civilian Levelleer John Wildman during the 1640s. Both married into the Lovelace family and lived in the same area of Berkshire' and that 'Captain-Lieutenant William Yate (was) probably Marten's kinsman.....In 1650 Marten was awarded Duchy of Lancaster lands in Herefordshire and Derbyshire. John Wildman, who would become Marten's nephew by marriage and was his close neighbour in Shrivenham. Although Marten's own marriage to Margaret Lovelace was unhappy, he was close to Wildman's wife Lucy Lovelace..'

Later Henry argued with Cromwell, opposing the dissolution of the Rump in 1653 and came to regard Cromwell as a threat to the establishment of a permanent English Republic. Under the Commonwealth, he played a prominent part, but his loose morals, his distrust of Cromwell's designs and his lack of practical ability debarred him from obtaining any great influence.

Henry Marten had inherited vast estates of Manors on the Thames and properties in Oxford and London. However his impending insolvency would see rents unpaid since 1647 at Eynsham, Oxford, Longworth, Beckett, Eaton Hastings, Buckland and Ashbury. His Berkshire Estate 'Beckett House' was ransacked by royalists in 1648. He was awarded by the state in an Act of Parliament for his expenditure during the civil war with the manor of Hartington in Derbyshire in 1649, and with Leominster Foreign, Hertfordshire (now Leominster priory). This second estate amounted to nearly 10,000 acres.

By 1650 Marten had purchased 'Derby House' in Chancel Row, London, where he now resided, however by the end of 1653 Marten's political career was in ruins and finally, in 1655, his profligacy culminated in bankruptcy. He was outlawed, and vanished from public life until the Long Parliament reassembled.

His brother George's debts contributed to the collapse of Henry's political career. During the 1620s and 1630s, Henry Marten was the owner of a merchant ship, called the 'Marten'. Henry offered the vessel to the service of England, and had installed his younger brother George, as the 'Marten's Captain during 1640/41. The 'Marten' was employed by parliament for six months from Apr to Sept 1642. However still Henry could not cover his costs.

In the mid 1650s, after his release from the Upper Bench prison, Henry and his mistress Mary Ward lived at the Southwark house of Mary's sister, Frances.

Ivor Waters wrote 'On August 20th 1656 another general election took place....Henry Marten was up to his neck in debts and with the help of his royalist brother-in-law Lord Lovelace, struggling to keep out of debtor's prison. If he was confined at this time it was probably in the Rules at Southwark, where he would be able to get privileged treatment and keep in touch with his friends.'

By early 1656 Marten's debts tied him to the Rules of Southwark. On 1 Mar 1657/8 the constables of St.George's Parish, Southwark asked him to pay them for watching him for fifteen nights and he was still at the Rules on May 5th, 1657 when his brother George wrote to him from Barbados, asking him to help George's daughter Susan to go out to him.

On 30 July 1657 Henry granted his mistress Mary Ward over 700 acres of his land at Hartington, which included 'Fern House' near Buxton. By Dec 1658 Marten's tenants of his Derbyshire estate were paying their rents to Mr. Savile who was purchasing the Hartington, Derbyshire estate.

Henry was desperate to be released from Southwark and on 1st March 1659 he offered the manor of 'Hartington' in Derbyshire for sale. 'The regicides' were named as 'Traitors to his late Majesty' and on 9th October 1660 were formally indicted at Hicks Hall, the sessions-house of the Middlesex justices. The following day the prisoners were taken to Newgate Prison and from there to the Old Bailey. Having failed to avert the Restoration, he refused to fly from it. At his trial at the Old Bailey on 16th October, Henry renounced none of his principles, but answered the judges '...it is circumstantiated' and the judge agreed that 'all Actions are circumstantiated..but the killing of the King is Treason of all Treasons'. The jury found all prisoners guilty.

Ten men were condemned to death, and were hanged, drawn and quartered. The rest were sent to the Tower to await Parliament's decision about their execution. His estates were seized on 28th November, but in any case they were mortgaged to the extent of 30,000 pounds. His financial affairs were in chaos and some of the property was apparently acquired by Lord Lovelace, who had gone surety for him. John Loder had bought Henry's manor of 'Hinton' in 1658 and his friend John Wildman purchased the 'Beckett Manor' and farm in May 1657.

On 20th February 1661 Henry appeared before the House of Lords and it is here, Ivor Waters wrote that it was 'concluded in the end, he should rot out the remainder of his life in the gaol.' Elsewhere it is written that 'Marten of whom it has been said, was a good-humoured man, whose kindness to Royalists during the Commonwealth years probably helped save him from a death sentence at the Restoration. Though condemned to death, the King spared his life'.

Imprisoned in the Tower Henry's daughters sometimes visited him, but not his wife 'the Old Woman at Longworth'. Three of his daughters, Anne, Jane and Rebecca, lived at Longworth with their mother. His daughter Frances was married to William Pryor of Longworth and his daugther Elizabeth married George Spyller, who is mentioned in one of Henry's letters as being 'sworn a Privy-chamber man extraordinary, which is worth little to him more than the protecting from arrests'. Mary, who was called by her father affectionately 'Mall' was married to Thomas Parker, who later became the 2nd Lord Morley and Mounteagle. These two were his favourites. His only son Henry or Hal, was a young man of twenty at the time of the arrest; and lived an uneventful life at Longworth, where he became a Church Warden in 1681.

The Royalists claimed Harry had numerous mistresses, and on 14 Feb 1651 a paternity claim was made by Ann Caitline. However, he had long regarded his mistress Mary Ward as his wife and given her the name of Marten. They had three children, Peggy, Sarah (known as Poppet) and the baby Henrietta (called Bacon-Hog). At the time of the baby's birth Henry wrote that he had Sarah in the Tower with him. As early as 1649 Mary was recognised in social circles as his mistress and used the name Mrs. Mary Marten. In that year Mary Ward attended a party with Henry held by Heert, the Spanish amabassador and had a house in Westminster.

Although a leading Puritan, Marten was a man of loose morals. He wrote and published several pamphlets, and in 1662 there appeared Henry Marten's Familiar Letters to his Lady of Delight, which contained letters to his mistress, Mary Ward.

Transported from the Tower after 25 Jul 1662 he was imprisoned shortly at Berwick until being transferred to Windsor Castle after the issue of a warrant dated 19 May 1665. A subsequent warrant was issued on 7th Dec 1668 to have Marten conveyed to Chepstow and Henry Marten spent the remainder of his long life imprisoned at Chepstow Castle until his death in 1680.

Aphra Benn, the first female playwright wrote a play called The Marten Brothers, about Henry and his brother George.

Henry's mother supposedly died in June 1618 and his father erected a monument to her memory in Longworth church. The figure of a woman kneeling at a desk and below her the statues of two sons and three daughters kneeling before another desk, and only fragments remain now. On the north wall of the chapel is a piece of black marble with a poem that her son Henry wrote. On the sill of the west window of the nave is the kneeling stone figure of Elizabeth Marten in a ruff, the figures of her three daughters kneeling at a desk and a large shield from her monumnent, but her two sons are missing.

Article Source: http://www.familyhistoryarticles.com

'Marten and the Long Parliment - The Prisoner of Chepstow Castle' by Ivor Waters (1976) ISBN 0-900278-18-8 ; IGI Shrivenham Parish Extracted Records Batch. C021772 1575 - 1732,Film 6900135 ; 'A Revolutionary Rogue - Henry Marten and The English Republic' by Sarah Barber : 2000 - ISBN 0-7509-2304-0; 'A shepherd came from Buttermere ' Written by Rayleen Krause. Also information from researchers Joanne Goodsell nee Hissey & Lauris Ashton. And the many online Biographies

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