M A R 
an the cfown from the time of Richard Ill’s marriage with 
Anne Neville, till queen Mary granted it to William lord 
Paget, in vvhofe family it remained more than a century. 
From the Pagets it paffed through feveral intermediate 
poffeffors to fir William Clayton, who purchafed it in the 
year 1736. It is now the property of his defcendant fir 
William Clayton, bart. who has a handfome feat, called 
Ilarleyford, at a fhort diftance from Marlow. 
From the denomination Chipping Marlow, which occurs 
in ancient records, this town is luppofed to have been a 
market-town in the time of the Saxons. It now confilts 
of two principal ftreets, and three frnaller. The Higli- 
Ilreet is fpacious, on a gradual defcent, and contains many 
good houfes. The whole town has been recently much 
improved. The church, which is a fpacious and ancient 
Itrufture, confids of a body and two aides, with a tran- 
fept dividing it from the chancel. From the tower rifes 
a wooden fpire, erected in the year 1627. The nave is fe- 
parated from the chancel by a fcreen of chalk decorated 
with tracery. The altar is of oak, curioudy carved. The 
old bridge, which eroded the Thames at Marlow, is of 
very remote origin ; among the patent rolls in the Tower 
aregrants from Edwardllh and twofucceedingmonarchs, 
allowing the bailiff's to take toll of all goods and merchan- 
dife palling over or under the bridge; the receipts to be 
expended in repairs. This ltrufture becoming ruinous 
and unfafe, the prefent bridge was ereCfed by private fub- 
feription in the year 1789, about which time the foot-paths 
of the ftreets were paved by the fame means. The prin¬ 
cipal charitable inilitutions in the town are two free- 
fchools, one for twenty-four boys, and the other for the 
fame number of girls, founded by fir William Borlafe 
about the year 1624; and alms-houfes for poor widows, 
endowed purfuant to a deed of trull from John Brink- 
hurft, efq. dated July 20th, 1608. The rents of the ellates 
appropriated to their fupport now amount to 42I. yearly ; 
which have enabled the truftees to add two perfons to the 
eftabJifhment, which originally confided of only four. 
Some faint traces of a corporation are difeovered in the 
records concerning the town, but it does not appear that 
any charter for its government was ever obtained ; the lafl 
mention of the mayor and burgefies occurs about the end 
of the fourteenth century. The firft return for the bo¬ 
rough was in the twenty-eighth year of Edward I. when 
Richard le Motiner and Richard le Veel were chofen as its 
reprefentatives in the parliament held at Lincoln. It con¬ 
tinued to fend members till the fecond of Edward II. af¬ 
ter which no returns were made for 314 years, till the 
twenty-firft of James I. when, on a petition to the houfe 
of commons, the privilege was reftored. The right of 
election is in the inhabitants paying fcot and lot - r the 
number of voters being 216. The returning officers are 
the conftables. The members are Owen Williams, efq. 
the great copper-mafter, and Pafcoe Grenfell, efq. As the 
majority of the houfes and property in the borough be¬ 
long to the above gentlemen, they may be faid to eledt 
and to reprefer.t themfelves. 
The Thames brings goods hither from the neighbour¬ 
ing towns, efpecially great quantities of meal and malt 
from High Wycomb, and beech from feveral parts of the 
county, which abounds with this wood more than any in 
England. In the neighbourhood are frequent horfe-races ; 
and here are feveral corn and paper-mills, particularly on 
the river Loddon, between this town and High Wycomb. 
It has two fairs : one on the 2.9th of October and two fol¬ 
lowing days, for horfes, cattle, hops, clothing, and toys 5 
alfo a llatute for hiring fervants ; the other fair is on the 
ift and 2d ot May, for cattle and toys. Market-day, Sa¬ 
turday. The chief manufafture of the place is black filk 
lace, and paper, with forae copper-mills- The junior de¬ 
partment ot the royal military college was eltablilhed here 
:n 1802; but in 1813 was removed to Sandhurfi, nearBag- 
Ihot. Great Marlow is diftant from High Wycomb and 
Maidenhead five miles, from Beaconsfield and Henley 
leven, from Reading fifteen, from Aylelbury feventeen, 
MAR 383 
and thirty-two well from London. Lat. 51. 34. N. Ion. o. 
47. W. 
Marlow is furrounded with a number of villages and 
gentlemen’s feats; the chief of which is Temple Mills, a 
village with a large manufactory of copper, brafs, and 
brafs-vvire ; here is the feat of Owen Williams, efq. mem¬ 
ber for Marlow. Near this are two mills, which are both 
of an extraordinary kind ; one for making of thimbles, 
the other for preiling of oil from rape and flax feed. 
Nearly oppofite Marlow on the fouth fide of the Thames, 
and in the county of Berks, is Bifham, a fmall village, 
pleafantly fituated, and containing a large manfion, the 
feat of the Right Hon. N. Vanfittart, chancellor of the 
exchequer. At Bilham was formerly an abbey, and the 
remains of it are ltill to be feen. The ellate belonged once 
to the Knights Templars; and fince came to the ancient 
family of Hobby, whereof fir William and fir Edward 
Hobby are noted in our hiltories; the latter as having 
been employed by queen Elizabeth in the moll important 
foreign negociations, as a learned man, and great antiqua¬ 
rian. Their monuments, with thole of their ladies and 
children, are in the little church of Bilham, and well worth 
feeing. The feat of the family is now in Dorfetlhire 3 
but hither they are generally all brought, when they die, 
to be buried with their anceffors. 
Hurley, alfo in Berklhire, is a pleafant village on the 
Oxford road, about two miles and a half diitant, with l'e- 
veral gentlemen’s feats.—Hsdfor, call of Marlow, near 
Cliefton, is in a delightful lituation, and poflefles beauties 
fufficient to attraCl the vifits of ltrangers, efpecially the 
gardens and park with the woods adjoining, which are ex¬ 
ceedingly piClurelque and romantic. 
MAR'LOW (Little), a village about two miles ead- 
ward of Great Marlow, contains 128 houfes. A bene- 
diCtine nunnery was founded here about the timeof Hen¬ 
ry II. but lcarcely any part of the conventual buildings is 
now Handing, the principal materials having been ufed in 
the condrudlion of a farm-houle. Beauties of England and, 
Wales. Wilkes's Briti/k DireElory, vol. iii. 
MAR'LSTON, a village near Chefter. 
MARLSTON GREE'hl, a village about three miles 
from Tring in Hertfordlhire. In the year 1751 a molt 
extraordinary affair happened at this place* Some coun¬ 
try people were poffefied of an opinion that an old man 
and woman of Tring, John and Ruth Olborne, were 
witches, on account of feveral cattle dying of a contagion, 
which then raged; great numbers of them affembled r 
fome on borfeback and others on foot, and went and had 
them proclaimed as fuch in three different market-towns, 
Thefe unfortunate people were afterwards dragged from 
the vellry of the church, where they had been concealed, 
and fo feverely ducked, that the woman died on the fpot, 
and the man a few days after. Several perfons were com¬ 
mitted to cuftody on the verdifl of the coroner’s jury ; and 
one Thomas Colley, a chimney-lvveep, who was a princi¬ 
pal adtor in this horrid affair, was tried at the enfuing af- 
fizes for Hertfordlhire, and capitally convicted. The fol¬ 
lowing circumitances came out at the trial. It appeared, 
that, on the 18th of April, 1751, one Nichols came to 
William Dell, the crier of Kernel Hempftead, and gave 
him a piece of paper, with four-pence, that he might cry 
the words written thereon in the market-place. The 
words were thefe: “ This is to give notice, that on Mon¬ 
day next, a man and woman are to be publicly ducked at 
Tring, in this county, for their wicked crimes.” The 
overfeer of the parifii, whare thefe people lived, having 
heard this cried at Window, Leighton Buzzard, and He- 
mel Hempdead, on the feveral market-days, and being 
informed that the two people were John Olborne and 
Ruth his wife, he lent them to the workhoufe for fafety. 
The mailer of the w orkhoufe, to make them dill more le- 
cure, removed them, in the middle of the night of the 
21 It, into the veftry-room of the church, thinking the fanc- 
tity of the place would have fome awe upon the mob, if 
they came. However, on the day appointed, more thaa 
joo© 
