he is thought to have been the son of william marshall, was said to be from kent, and was a scholar of corpus christi college, oxford, from 1532 till 1538. he graduated b.a. 5 december 1537, and his subsequent degrees were m.a. 5 october 1540, b.d. october 1544, and d.d. 18 july 1552. he became fellow of his college in 1538, but migrated to christ church about 1540, becoming a student there.