William of Welney Marshall

• General Notes
  • Welney
    
    http://www.welney.org.uk/school.htm
    http://www.welney.org.uk/William%20Marshall.htm
    
    school owes its existence to Welney's greatest benefactor, William Marshall. His story, and that of the charity he created more than 340 years ago,
    
    WELNEY, a chapelry, in the parish of Upwell, union of Downham, partly in the hundred of Wisbech, Isle of Ely, county of Cambridge, and partly in the hundred of Clackclose, W. division of Norfolk, 10 miles (S. W.) from Downham; containing 996 inhabitants, of whom 405 are in the Cambridge portion. The chapel is situated in Cambridgeshire. William Marshall, in 1661, conveyed to 12 feoffees 479 acres of land, onethird part of the rent of which is applied to relieving widows, and in apprenticing children, who are also provided with clothing if necessary. As much of the remaining two-thirds as is requisite is appropriated to the repairs of the chapel, and to keeping in order the highways and a bridge; the residue goes to the endowment of a free school. The revenue is about £1000 per annum. Many Roman coins were dug up here in 1718.
    
    http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51387
    
      Some records state that William Marshall was born in Wisbech, the son of John Marshall, but his date of birth is unknown. John Marshall was a prominent citizen of Wisbech in the 1600’s having been elected Bailiff (the equivalent of an Alderman today) four times between 1616 and 1677, but no evidence has been found yet to prove that he was William Marshall's father.
    
    It is a known fact that William Marshall was a lawyer of Lincoln’s Inn in London. It is also a known fact that a man named William Marshall was a scholar at Westminster; was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1639; obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1642/43 and a Master of Arts degree in 1646; went on to Oxford University and was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1647. It would appear very likely that these are one and the same man.
    
    http://www.welney.org.uk/William%20Marshall.htm