# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/March, John (1640-1692)

​MARCH, JOHN (1640–1692), vicar of Newcastle, possibly descended from the Marches of Redworth in Durham, was born in 1640 in Newcastle-on-Tyne, of anabaptist parents, 'who died while he was young, and left Ambrose Barnes some way in trust for him' (see Harl. MS. 1052, f. 92 b; Hutchinson, Durham, iii. 205; Surtees, Durham, iii. 308; Durham Wills (Surtees Soc.), xxxviii. 188). He was educated in grammar-school learning at Newcastle, under George Ritschel, was entered as a commoner at Queen's College, Oxford, 10 June 1657, under the tuition of Thomas Tully, and matriculated in the university 15 June, being described as 'John March, gent.' When, in December 1658, Tully was elected principal of St. Edmund Hall, March followed him thither. He graduated B.A. 14 June 1661, M.A. 26 May 1664, B.D. 23 March 1673-4, and became a noted tutor and for several years (1664-72) vice-president of St. Edmund Hall. Among his pupils there was John Kettlewell (see Life prefixed to Kettlewell's Works, p. 11). In June 1672 he was presented by the warden and fellows of Merton College to the vicarage of Embleton (Chathill, Northumberland), and subsequently became chaplain to Dr. Crew, bishop of Durham. On 30 Aug. 1672 he was appointed afternoon lecturer at St. Nicholas's, the parish church of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and on 25 June 1679 became vicar of St. Nicholas, resigning the Embleton vicarage. In the same year he was constituted proctor for the diocese of Durham in convocation. The salary attached to his cure at St. Nicholas's was paid by the corporation, and was at first 60l. a year, with an additional 10l. for his turns on the Thursday lecture. On 30 March 1682 this sum was permanently increased to 90l. per annum. March was a strong churchman, very anti-papal, and, despite his early training, virulent against the dissenters ('these frogs of Egypt'), and earned the reputation of having, along with Isaac Basire, brought Newcastle to a high degree of conformity by his zeal and diligence in preaching and personal instruction, especially of the young (Dean Granville, Works and Letters, Surtees Soc., xxxvii. 167, 27 May 1683). He took part in an attempt to establish a monthly meeting of clergy and civilians for the consideration of discipline and the Common Prayer-book (see Dean Granville, Remains, Surtees Soc., xlvii. 171). He was an outspoken defender of passive obedience, and opposed to the revolution, 'taking the short oath of allegiance with such a declaration or limitation as should still leave him free to serve the abdicated king' (Barnes, Diary, p. 436). On one occasion (15 July 1690) he had to be informed by the corporation that his salary would be stopped if he did not pray for William and Mary by name (Newcastle common council books, quoted by Brand). March died on 2 Dec. 1692, and was buried on the 4th in the parish church of St. Nicholas. His son Humphrey entered St. Edmund Hall in 1694-5. His sister was married to Alderman Nicholas Ridley of Newcastle,
Three original portraits of March exist : one at Blagdon, a second in the vicarage house at Newcastle, and the third mentioned by Brand as belonging to Alderman Hornby, for which a subscription was some time since raised with the object of placing it in the Thomlinson Library. An engraving of one of these, by J. Sturt, is prefixed to the volume of sermons below.
Besides separately issued sermons, March published: 1. 'Vindication of the present Great Revolution in England, in five Letters pass'd betwixt James Welwood, M.D., and Mr. John March, Vicar of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, occasioned by a Sermon preached by him on 30 Jan. 1688-9 before the Mayor and Aldermen for passive obedience and nonresistance' (consists of three letters of Weiwood's, a Scottish doctor practising in Newcastle, remonstrating with March's declaration for passive obedience, and two extremely caustic and uncourteous replies by March), London, 1689, 4to. 2. 'Sermons preached on Several Occasions by John March, &c., the last of which was preached 27 Nov. 1692, being the Sunday before he died.' London, 1693; 2nd edit, with a preface by Dr. John Scott, and a sermon added, preached at the assizes in Newcastle in the reign of King James, London, 1699.
[Foster's Alumni; Hearne's Reliq. ii. 60; Henry Bourne's History of Newcastle-on-Tyne, pp. 74-5, whose notice is taken practically verbatim by his successors, John Brand (Hist, and Antiq. of Newcastle, i. 307), Sykes (Local Records, i. 124), and Mackenzie (Account of Newcastle-on-Tyne, i. 266); Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 373, Fasti, ii. 248, 278, 335; Diary of Ambrose Barnes; Dean Granville's Remains and Works and Letters (Surtees Soc.); Kettlewell's Works; information kindly sent by the Rev. J. R. Magrath, D.D., provost of Queen's, the Rev. Mr. Osborn, vicar of Embleton, and the Rev. E. Moore, D.D., principal of St. Edmund Hall.]
W. A. S.