The Honest Burgess. Grave of Mathew Marston who refused to be bribed. St John the Baptist Church, Bishop's Castle, Shropshire
The grave of Matthew Marston, the "Honest Burgess", who refused to exploit his position in the days when the town was a notorious Rotten Borough and died in 1802. The Honest Burgess In the extreme northwest corner of the churchyard, close to the wall, is the grave of Matthew Marston. It reads: To the memory of Matthew Marston. He departed this life May 29th 1802 aged 81, the oldest Burgess of the Borough. His steady and uncorrupt conduct presents an example to his brother Burgesses for perpetual imitation, and a useful lesson to the Parliamentary Representatives of the Borough, that Opulence and Power cannot alone secure independent suffrage. Until the Reform Act of 1832, Bishop's Castle returned two Members to Parliament and was notorious for the scale of bribery inflicted upon would-be candidates by unscrupulous Burgesses. Much evidence exists of Rotten or Pocket Borough political engineering. For the 1802 election, in the year Matthew Marston died, the price of votes rose from £20 to £25, a considerable amount which only very wealthy candidates could afford. A steady and uncorrupt Burgess was remarkable, and the Marston family proudly recorded his example for posterity.
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