"John Marston of City of Coventry Gent dated 24 Oct. 1599 to Mary my wife, my mansion &c. in Crosse Cheepinge in Coventry and other premises for life rem^r to John my son and heirs of body rem^r to heirs of body of Raphe Marston Gent my father dec^d rem^r to right heirs of my s^d son[;] to s^d wife my interest in certain lands &c. after death of John Butler[3] my father in law and Margaret his now wife in par. Cropedy co. Oxon and others in Wardington co. Oxon rem^r to John my son to s^d wife 1/2 of plate and household stuff &c. to s^d son John my furniture &c. in my chambers in the Middle Temple my law books &c. to my s^d son _whom I hoped would have profited by them in the study of the law but man proposeth and God disposeth_ &c. to kinsman and servant Tho^s Marston 20 nobles to my poorest brother Rich^d Marston 20 nobles for him and his children all residue to Mary my wife &c. (G. Gascoigne a witness) Proved 29 Nov. 1599." In the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (82 Kidd.). Wood vaguely says that the poet (the John Marston of Brazennose College) "after completing that degree [the degree of B.A.] by determination, went his way and improved his learning in other faculties." It is clear from his father's will that he found legal studies distasteful, and we may conjecture that he quickly turned from the professional career on which he had entered and devoted his attention to literature and the stage. Few biographical facts concerning Marston have come down. He married (but at what precise date we cannot determine) Mary, daughter of the Rev. William Wilkes, Chaplain to James I., and Rector of St. Martin's, co. Wilts. Ben Jonson told Drummond of Hawthornden that "Marston wrote his father-in-law's preachings, and his father-in-law his comedies;" a witty remark, contrasting the asperity of Marston's comedies with the blandness of his father-in-law's sermons. Marston's plays--with the exception of _The Insatiate Countess_--were published between 1602 and 1607. He seems to have definitely abandoned play-writing about the year 1607; but the date at which he entered the Church is not clearly ascertained. On 10th October 1616 he was presented to the living of Christ Church in Hampshire;[4] he compounded for the firstfruits of Christ Church on 12th February 1616-7; and he formally resigned the living (probably from ill-health) on 13th September 1631. William Sheares the publisher issued in 1633 a collective edition of Marston's plays, and in the dedicatory address to Lady Elizabeth Carey, Viscountess Falkland, speaks of the author as "in his autumn and declining age" and "far distant from this place." On 25th June 1634 Marston died in Aldermanbury parish, London. His will, dated 17th June 1634, was drawn up when he was so ill as to be compelled to make a mark instead of affixing his signature. The will[5] runs thus:--