Marmaduke Roydon

Sir Marmaduke Roydon (also Rawdon and Rawden, with Royden a contemporary spelling[1]) (1583 – 28 April 1646) was an English merchant-adventurer and colonial planter, known also as a Royalist army officer.

At sixteen years of age he went to London, where he was apprenticed to Daniel Hall, a Bordeaux merchant, who sent him as his factor to France.

This award set off a sharp struggle between Roydon's followers, and those supporting the claims of William Courten.

[8] In the First English Civil War he fought on the king's side, raised a regiment at his own cost, and took part in the defence of Basing House (1643).

[3] In 1611, while a clothworker in All Hallows, Barking, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Thorowgood of Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.

Their son Thomas fought as a colonel in the Royalist army, and after the battle of Marston Moor went into exile in the Canaries.