chosen as "lecturer" in the neighbouring village of Wethers-
field. No doubt his growing fame as an orator had first
attracted William Kempe's attention, but he must also have
been a man of outstanding personality, for "when he came
to the living, he soon wrought upon his Patron to lay by his
Pen and Converse with Men by His Tongue: he brought him
to Public Worship, hundreds of Spectators wondering to see
him come to Church".
Very soon we find Marshall taking part in politics. He was
one of 49 clergymen who signed a petition to Archbishop
Laud in 1629, and thereafter Laud obviously thought him a
troublesome man worth watching. One interesting report
sent to the Archbishop in 1637 describes him as "a dangerous
person, but exceeding cunning. ... He governeth the
conscience of all the rich Puritans in those parts and in
many places far remote and is grown very rich". His
tendency to "preach out of his parish" increased during the
elections to the Short Parliament and by November 1640 he
delivered the first of many sermons to the Commons. He
also became a pamphleteer (his initials begin the title
"SMECTYMUS" of a work published in 1641, that created
quite a stir) and became so popular that in 1642 Parliament
granted the wish of St. Margaret's, Westminster, to make him
one of their "lecturers", preaching one sermon a week at
6 a.m.
This was too much for Finchingfield and the parishioners,
led by Robert Kempe (nephew of the "Dumb Squire"),
petitioned against the arrangement.
The petition was rejected, and Marshall kept on the
vicarage. An assistant, Letmale, was, however, appointed and
for the next seven years Marshall himself did not administer
Holy Communion at Finchingfield. We hear of him "preach-
ing from regiment to regiment at Edge Hill": being sent to
Scotland in 1643 (the Scots admitted he was the best
preacher in England): attending Laud during his imprison-
ment and execution: and on occasion being in attendance
on Charles I, who had little patience either with his sermons
or the inordinate length of his graces before dinner. All