WILLIAM DE MARCHAM of Marcham and Tuxford inherited his father's estates, but not his high office, and all that we know of him is that he greatly increased his paternal inheritance by an alliance with the family of Lexington, several members of which were high in the esteem of Henry III. Richard de Lexington and his wife Matilda de Cauz had three sons and two daughters. Alice, the elder daughter, was married to Sir Roland de Sutton, which family in after years, by right of his wife, obtained the title of Baron Lexington. Cecilia, the younger, was married to William de Marcham, and with her sister inherited the large possessions of the Lexingtons, - all the brothers, John* keeper of the signet to Henry III., Robert Lord of Lexington, and Henry Bishop of Lincoln, dying without issue. The lands that came to the Markhams by Cecilia went away with the heirs general of Robert Markham 17 Edw. I., only Markham was entailed on the heirs male. William† died about the year 1267, and was succeeded by his son. * Lord Keeper 1238, again 1242, again 1247, and a fourth time 1248, governor of the castles of Peo and Bolsover in Derbyshire, and of Oxford, 13 Hen. III. † William de Marcham held a knight's fee in the reign of Henry III. in the honour of Tickhill. RICHARD DE MARKHAM, ‡ living in the time of Henry III., shared with the family of Roland de Sutton, in right of his mother, all the vast possessions of the Lexington family; they being found the next heirs of the Bishop of Lincoln, who outlived his brothers. Richard de Marcham thus, besides other lands, held of the King in capiti half a knight's fee and the culture (or wong) and wood in Knesale, also in Stratham three cultures of John de Eyville. Whom Richard married we have not discovered, but he left three sons, Robert who succeeded him, Richard, and William. ‡ "The partition of the Lexington lands was made 43 Hen. III. By fine between William Sutton, son of Roland (of whom Lord Dudley decends), and Richard Marcham, son of William." Thoroton, p.380. Richard de Marcham granted the monks of St. Mary at Blith 20s. per annum for the moiety of the mill at Murihild bridge; which the said prior and monks granted to him and his heirs. SIR ROBERT DE MARCHAM, the eldest son of Richard, appears to have had no sons, but three daughters: CICELY, married first to Sir John Bekering, and had a son Thomas, whose grandson had to wife the daughter and coheir of Sir John de Lowdham, whose sister Margaret married Thomas Foljambe. Sir Thomas Bekering had a daughter Milicent, who married secondly Sir John Markham, the elder judge, as will be hereafter noted. BERTHA, the wife of William de Longvilliers; and AGNES, married to William de Sancta Cruce. The wife of Sir Robert de Marcham was Sarah, daughter and coheir of Jordan de Snitterton, in the county of Derby. Sir Robert seems to have been a man of small account, if we may believe the accurate Historian of Nottinghamshire, who says "Robert de Marcham was a great man, and had an esquire named Robert de Fowick, 2 E.1." He left to his daughters, besides the lands mentioned above, at his death, which took place in the 17th year of the reign of Edward I., a capital messuage in Marnham, and a capital messuage in West Markham, seven acres of arable land in demesne, twenty of meadow, and a watermill, paying the prior of Monk-Breton 8d. per annum, and the nuns of Wallin-Welles 6d. Sir Robert dying without issue male, the entailed property, that is, all he inherited on his father's side, decended to his next brother. RICHARD DE MARCHAM does not appear to have made the same figure as his brother, and in all probability lived a retired life, being considerably advanced in life before he succeeded to his fortune. At his demise the property decended to his son Sir John Markham, for about this time the name begins to be spelt after this fashion. WILLIAM DE MARCHAM, the third son of Richard and Cecilia de Lexington, was an ecclesiastic, and a very eminent man in his day. In the year 1290, he was raised to the office of Lord Treasurer by Edward I., in which post he continued till 1295. In the mean time he was nominated to the see of Wells, being elected on the Friday after the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, and consecrated on Whitsunday 1293.* The bishop was so highly esteemed by all ranks of people for his piety and power of working miracles, that after his death he was selected by Pope Boniface VIII. As worthy to be enrolled in the Calendar of Saints. This sanctified station however he was doomed never to attain, and Polydore Virgil assigns the following reason. "When the King's treasury was empty, he advised his royal master to take all the treasures from monasteries and churches, and pay the soldiers with it, for there was great war." And true enough it is, that in the twenty-second year of the reign, Edward granted a commission, appointing the bishop with the lords of the Exchequer to receive fines to his use, from all archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and other ecclesiastical persons, ladies, widows, and other women, in lieu of military service in the expedition that was then destined for Gascony. Whether this scheme arose from the bishop's advice, or whether he was made to father the unpopular exaction, seems very doubtful; but at all events his conduct was so condemned at Rome, that his name never occupied the Calendar. * See Appendix (A). He died in the year 1302, and his tomb was to be seen not long ago in the cathedral church of Wells, with the following inscription- "Hic jacet Gulielmus de Marcham, hujus quondam ecclesiæ episcopus, et Angliæ sub Eduardo Primo Rege tresaurarius, qui obiit anno domini 1302, cum sedisset annos decem." SIR JOHN MARKHAM, Lord of East Markham, was living in the reigns of the first three Edwards. He was an eminent lawyer, and arrived at the dignity of King's Sergeant. He married Joan, the daughter and heir of Sir Nicholas Bottumsell or Bothomsell, and her coat is impaled with Markham in Markham, Cotham, and Maplebeck. By her he had three sons: William, who succeeded him, but died childless; Robert, of whom hereafter; and Nigel, who was the tenant of William of Lyneham, of a manor in Markham 9 Edw. I. By his second wife Sir John had two daughters, Elizabeth, who was 12, and Cecilia, who was 10 years of age, at his death, which took place in 1329. He was buried in the cemetery of the church of East Retford.* * Johannes de Markham senior, sepultus in cemeterio ecclesiae de East Retford 23 Edw.III. His legatees were, his daughter Cecilia, William de Gayforth, who married his daughter Elizabeth, and their son Joseph, and William de Markham, leaving all his goods to his son, and making him his heir. Dodsworth MSS. See Appendix (B). SIR ROBERT MARCHAM succeeded his brother William, who died childless, and, following the same profession as his father, became also King's Serjeant. He married Isabel, the daughter and heir of Sir John de Caunton, of Caunton, and by her had issue one son. SIR JOHN MARKHAM, following in the steps of his father and grandfather, applied himself to the study of the law, in which he was eminently successful. In Richard the Second's time he had become serjeant-at-law, and was entrusted to draw up the instrument for deposing that monarch; moreover, he was appointed one of the commission to receive the crown which the unfortunate Richard resigned in favour of his rival Henry of Bolingbroke. A curious speech made upon this occasion to the King by Sir William Thirnyng, the Chief Justice, will not be without interest. "The wordes whych William Thirnyng spake to Monsire Richard late kynge of Englande, at the Tower of London, in his chamber, on Wednesday night next after the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, were as follows. "`Sire, - It is well knowen to 3ow that ther was a parlement somoned of all the states of the Reaume for to be at Westmynstre, and to begin on the Tuesday in ye moru of ye Fest of St. Michel ye Arch Angel, that was 3esterday; by cause of ye which somons aH the states of this land were there gadyrd, the whych states hole made the same persones that ben comen here to 3owe nowe, her procurators, and gaven hem full autorite and power, and charged hem for to saye ye wordes that we shall saye to 3owe in her name, and on her behalfe; that is to wytten, the Bishop of Asa for Er-Bishoppes and Bishoppes; the Abbot of Glastenbury for Abbots and Priors, and alle other men of holie chirche, seculers and rewelers; the Erle of Glocestre for Dukes and Erles; the Lord Berkely for Barons and Bannerettes; Sir Thomas Erpyngham for alle the Bachelers and Comons be Sothe; Sir Thomas Grey for alle the Bachelers and Comons be Northe; and my Felawe Johan Markham and me for to come with hem for all thes states. And so, Sire, thes wordes and the doying that we shall saye to 3owe, is not onlich our wordes, but the doying of all the states of this londe, and our charge in her name. And he answered and sayde that he wyste wele that we wolde noghte saye but as we were chargyd. "`Syre, 3e remembre 3owe wele, that on Moneday in the Fest of St. Michel the Arch Angel, ryght here in thys chambre, and in what presence, 3e renounced and cessed of the state of kynge and lordshippe, and of alle the dignite and wyrschippe that longed therto, and assoiled alle 3owr leiges of her leigaure and obeisance that longed to 3owe, uppe the foarme that is contened in the same renunciation and cession, which 3e redde 3our selfe by 3owr owne writinge. "`Upon whiche 3e made and ordained 3our procurators the Erbyschoppe of York and the Byschoppe of Hereforde, for to notifye and declare in 3owe name this renunciation and cession at Westmynstre to all the states, and all the people that was ther gadyrd, by cause of the somons aforesaid, the whych thus don 3esterday by thes Lordes 3our procurators, and wele herde and understanden, thes renunciation and cession were planelich and frelich accepted, and fullich agreed by alle the states and people aforesayde; and over this, Syre, at the instance of all thes states and people ther were certaine articles of defautes in 3our governance 3edde ther, and tho wele herde and plenelich understanden to all the states aforesayde, hem thoght hem so treue, and so notarie and knowen, that by the causes and no othir, as ther saide, and havynge consideration to 3our owne wordes in zour owne renunciation and cession, that 3e were not worthie, ne sufficient, ne able to governe for 3our owne demerits, as it is more plenelich conteyned therin, hem thoght that was reasonable and cause for to depose 3owe, and her commissaries that her made and ordeyned as it is of record, ther declared and decreed and adjudged 3owe for to be deposed, and pryved 3owe of the estate of kynge, and of the lordshippe contened in the renunciation and cession aforesayde, and of alle the dignite and wyrschyppe and alle the administration that longed therto. And we, procurators of all these states and people aforesayde, as we be charged by hem, and by her autorite gyffen us, and in her name 3elde 3owe uppe for all the states and people aforesayde, homage leige, and feaute, and alle legiance, and alle other bondes, charges, and services that long therto, and that none of alle thes states and people fro thys tyme forward ne bere 3owe feyth, ne do 3owe obesance as to kynge. "And he answered and seyed, that he lokyd not therafter, but he seyd that after all thys he hoped that hys cozyn wolde be gude lorde to hym."* * Howell. Thomas de Walsingham. See Appendix (C) ...