MARRIOTT (MARRYOTT), Richard (d. 1703), of Arundel House, St Clement Danes, Westminster, St Andrew Holborn, and Worlingworth, Suff.

Marriott’s origins appear to have lain in Northamptonshire.20Arundel, A1069, unfol. However, his early life is obscure, and it is difficult to distinguish him from numerous namesakes both in the provinces and in London, where he spent much of his later life. He is to be distinguished from Richard Marriott of Surrey who served as keeper of the wardrobe at Hampton Court from the mid-1630s until his death in 1664, and whose heirs held the post into the eighteenth century, but some kinship connection cannot be ruled out.21CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 203; 1661-2, p. 76; 1664-5, pp. 129, 172; PROB11/315/455. Marriott the MP was a long-standing client of the Howard family, earls of Arundel. He was in their employ by October 1654, and by April 1656 was recorded as living at Arundel House in the Strand.22Arundel, C22; CCC 2468. This was within the parish of St Clement Danes, which makes it likely that he was the Richard Marriott, described on the first occasion as son of John Marriott of Padington [i.e. Piddington] Grange, Northamptonshire, whose marriage banns were recorded there in April and May 1655 (with Margaret, daughter of Ralph Wilde of St Andrew’s Holborn) and again in July 1658 (with Thomasina, daughter of John Angell of Crowhurst in Surrey). Richard and Thomasina’s son John and daughter Elizabeth were baptized there respectively in November 1661 and January 1663. 23St Clement Danes par. reg.; Misc. Gen. et Her. (4th ser.), iii. 301; Vis. Surr. (Harl. Soc. lx), 2.

It is unclear to whom in the Howard family Marriott was ultimately accountable in this period. Thomas Howard – who in April 1652 succeeded his father, Henry Frederick Howard* as 23rd or 16th earl of Arundel – was described as having a mental impairment following the contraction of a fever on the continent, where he spent most of his life from the mid-1640s. Much of the family patrimony appears to have been controlled by his younger brother, Henry Howard, a Catholic suspected of involvement in royalist plots. Marriott’s role in the Howard household was evidently as receiver of rents for large portions of the estate; in July 1658 he was mentioned in letters from another Howard employee regarding land deeds.24CP; CSP Dom. 1658-9, p. 89. Later in 1658 Marriott compiled an account of the receipts from the family estates in various counties, as well as other financial transactions.25Arundel, A1069, unfol.

The patronage of Henry Howard is likely to have secured Marriott’s election to the 1659 Parliament as one of the Members for Arundel. Initial reports stated that the seats there had gone to Henry Onslow* and John Feilder*, but by the end of January the latter had opted to represent Castle Rising – another borough subject to Howard influence – and Marriott was reported as having been returned.26Publick Intelligencer no. 160 (17-24 Jan. 1659), 167 (E.761.5); no. 161 (24-31 Jan. 1659), 185 (E.761.7); Mercurius Politicus no. 550 (13-20 Jan. 1659), 176 (E.761.6). He made no detectable impression on the work of the assembly.

Possibly suspected of royalism, or Catholicism, or both, on 21 June Marriott was summoned to attend the council of state; the precise nature of the business was not specified.27CSP Dom. 1658-9, p. 383. In September the restored Rump was informed that the earl of Arundel – alleged to be a Protestant – was being kept from England by his brother Henry. Parliament ordered that Arundel should return to England, and that the estate should be secured for Arundel in the hands of ‘fit persons’ (28 Sept.).28CSP Ven. 1659-61, pp. 73, 83, 107-8; CSP Dom. 1659-60, pp. 201, 219, 228.

Marriott’s name appears frequently in Howard family accounts and correspondence during the 1660s and 1670s.29Sheffield City Lib. Arundel MSS, S477, W33; Arundel, A90, unfol.; Arundel, Autograph letters 1632-1723, nos. 419, 421. When Henry Howard, by this time 6th duke of Norfolk, was on the continent in 1679, Marriott was responsible for estate business, and his name occurs regularly in relation to legal cases involving members of the Howard family into the 1680s.30LJ xiii. 481a; HMC Lords, i. 102, 195, 256, 299-300; Arundel, MD292, MD294, MD1251. Marriott was also involved – possibly independently – in projects for the drainage of the fens.31Arundel, A90, p. 249, 241-39 (in reverse).

His work for the Howard family may have helped Marriott secure other posts, although it is difficult to reach firm conclusions. In June 1660 one Richard Marriott was recommended to Sir Edward Nicholas† for the office of conveying letters to and from the posthouse, while by 1665 a man probably the former MP had been appointed clerk of the council and register of the court of chancery for the queen consort, Catherine of Braganza, a position which he held until his death.32CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 44; E. Chamberlayne, Present State of England (1669), 298; Present State of England (1702), 529. In 1669 a man of the same name was appointed receiver of revenue at Windsor, on the recommendation of Prince Rupert, governor of Windsor Castle.33CTB iii. 161, 302; CSP Dom. 1670, p. 736. Although he undertook repairs at Windsor, this Marriott was suspended in July 1671, on the grounds of financial irregularities.34CTB iii. 435, 447, 459, 482, 544, 596, 603, 625, 692, 734, 781; 918, 941, 1013, 1032-3, 1037, 1044, 1049, 1056, 1121, 1136, 1212, 1365; CSP Dom. 1670, p. 306; 1671, p. 211. However, although he was quickly replaced, he was reappointed before January 1677.35CTB iii. 1061, 1223, 1237; CSP Dom. 1660-85, p. 463. That this Marriott was our MP is suggested by the fact that, following the death of Prince Rupert, in 1682 the duke of Norfolk was constituted constable of Windsor Castle and warden of forests and parks.

Marriott died in 1703, when he was recorded as living in St Andrew’s Holborn. His will named Sir John Marshall of Finchingfield and William Angell as executors. He left fenland in Mildenhall, Suffolk, to his wife, Lady Elizabeth Theobald, for life, and then to his son Henry.36PROB11/473/484; Vis. Suff. 1664-1668 (Harl. Soc. lxi), 133. His heir, John Marriott, who had been called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1686, subsequently received a pension from Queen Anne.37Al. Cant.; I. Temple database; Misc. Gen. et Her. (4th series), iii. 289; CTB xviii. 1056.