Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fotherby, Martin
FOTHERBY, MARTIN (1549?–1619), bishop of Salisbury, son of Maurice Fotherby, a resident at Grimsby, Lincolnshire, was born about 1549. He entered at Cambridge, and eventually became a fellow of Trinity. He became prebendary and archdeacon of Canterbury in 1596, and in 1615 was presented to the deanery. He had married some years before his first promotion; for on 9 Sept. 1609 Lady Cooke wrote to Lord Salisbury asking him to promote the marriage of her eldest daughter with the archdeacon's eldest son, to which Fotherby objected, and in the following year, after the marriage had taken place, begged for a knighthood at the creation of the Prince of Wales for her son-in-law, because her daughter's worth and birth had been much disgraced by the match. Three years afterwards, being chaplain to James I, he was appointed to the bishopric of Salisbury. He was consecrated by Abbot, assisted by the bishops of London, Coventry, and Lincoln, 19 April 1618, and protested at his consecration that he had given nothing for his promotion. He died 29 March 1619, aged 70, and was buried in Allhallows Church, Lombard Street. In the epitaph on his tomb he is described in very high-flown terms of praise. He left an imperfect work against atheism, which was published after his death in 1622 in folio, under the title ‘Atheomastix: clearing foure Truthes against Atheists and Infidels.’ Four sermons were published together in 1608 in quarto, having been written in 1604. Copies of both these works are in the British Museum.
[Wood's Athenæ (Bliss), ii. 859; Godwin, De Præsulibus; Le Neve's Fasti; Stubbs's Registrum; Domestic State Papers.]