STEPHEN

See also:

• MARSHALL
• MARSHALL, ALFRED (1842– )
• MARSHALL, JOHN (1755–1835)
• MARSHALL, JOHN (1818-1891)
• STEPHEN MARSHALL (c. 1594-1655)

MARSHALL (c. 1594-1655)  , English Nonconformist divine, was born at Godmanchester in Huntingdonshire, and was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (M.A . 1622, B.D . 1629) . After holding the living of Wethersfield in Essex he became vicar of Finchingfield in the same county, and in 1636 was reported for " want of conformity." He was a preacher of great power, and influenced the elections for the Short Parliament of 164o . Clarendon esteemed his influence on the parliamentary side greater than that of Laud on the royalist . In 1642 he was appointed lecturer at St Margaret's, Westminster, and delivered a series of addresses to the Commons in which he advocated episcopal and liturgical reform . He had a share in writing Smectymnuus, was appointed chaplain to the earl of Essex's regiment in 1642, and a member of the Westminster Assembly in 1643 . He represented the English Parliament in Scotland in 1643, and attended the parliamentary commissions at the Uxbridge Conference in 1645 . He waited on Archbishop Laud before Ms execution, and was chaplain to Charles I. at Holmby House and at Carisbrooke . A moderate and judicious presbyterian, he prepared with others the " Shorter Catechism " in 1647, and was one of the " Triers," 1654 . He died in November 1655 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, but his body was exhumed and maltreated at the Restoration . His sermons, especially that on the death of John Pym in 1643, reveal eloquence and fervour .

The only " systematic "

work he published was A Defence of Infant Baptism, against John Tombes (London, 1646) .