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CHURCH OF ST. GEORGE THE MARTYR, CANTERBURY,

BEFORE THE TOWER WAS TORN DOWN

PLATE III.

tanners, a trade which combined with the shoemakers in forming a guild, appears by his will, made in 1550, to have been possessed of some property. The date of his death is unknown.15 Another Christopher Marlowe of this district who was 'presented' (i.e. reported) to the archbishop for some breach of morality, was probably his son. This Christopher, who lived into the seventeenth century, left two daughters only, but it is necessary to refer to him, so that his record may not be confused with the poet's.16

A John Marlowe, to whom various church register references are made in connection with the christening and burial of his children, was probably the poet's paternal grandfather." His occupation and the date of his death have not been traced, but it is surmised that the next John Marlowe was his son, and he was, as is known, the poet's father. This last John was married on the 22nd of May 1561, at the parish church of St. George the Martyr, by the Rev. W. Sweetinge, the rector, to Catherine Arthur, the daughter, in all probability, of the Rev. Christopher Arthur, at one time rector of St. Peter's, Canterbury, and, apparently, a scion of an ancient Kentish family entitled to bear arms.18

Like her contemporary Mary Arden, the wife of John Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon, Catherine Arthur seems to have belonged to a family somewhat higher in the social scale than her husband's. But the marriage would scarcely have been an unequal one. The Rev. Christopher Arthur was one of

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