# Robert Pakington > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Robert_Pakington > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Robert_Pakington.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Pakington > Source revision: 1357148814 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|16th-century English politician}} {{Use British English|date=May 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Robert Pakington | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = {{circa|1489}} | parents = John Pakington, Elizabeth Washborne | spouse = {{plainlist| * Agnes Baldwin * Katherine Dallam }} | children = Sir [Thomas Pakington](/source/Thomas_Pakington) | birth_place = Stanford-on-Teme | death_date = 13 November {{death year and age|1536|1489}} | death_place = London | death_cause = Killed By Handgun | burial_place = }} '''Robert Pakington''' ({{circa|1489}} – 13 November 1536) was a London merchant and Member of Parliament. He was murdered with a [handgun](/source/handgun) in London in 1536, likely the first such killing in the city. His murder was later interpreted as martyrdom, and recounted in [John Foxe](/source/John_Foxe)'s [Acts and Monuments](/source/Acts_and_Monuments). He was the grandfather of Queen [Elizabeth I](/source/Elizabeth_I)'s [favourite](/source/favourite), [Sir John "Lusty" Pakington](/source/John_Pakington_(died_1625)). ==Family== Robert Pakington, born about 1489 at [Stanford-on-Teme](/source/Stanford-on-Teme), [Worcestershire](/source/Worcestershire), was a younger son of John Pakington and Elizabeth Washborne, the daughter of Thomas Washborne.{{sfn|Miller|1982}} He had three brothers, [John](/source/John_Pakington_(MP_and_Sheriff)), Augustine, and Humphrey.{{sfn|Miller|1982}} ==Life== By 1510 Pakington had completed an apprenticeship with the [Mercers' Company](/source/Worshipful_Company_of_Mercers), one of the twelve great [livery companies](/source/Livery_Company) of London, and was exporting cloth and importing various wares.{{sfn|Miller|1982}} In 1523, and again in 1529, he and others were chosen to draw up articles on behalf of the Mercers for presentation to Parliament.{{sfn|Miller|1982}} According to Peter Marshall, one of the articles drawn up in 1529 was "sharply anti-clerical".{{sfn|Marshall|2008}} In 1527–1528 Pakington was elected Warden of the {{not a typo|Company}}.{{sfn|Miller|1982}} He was elected to Parliament in a by-election in October 1533, and was re-elected in 1536. The chronicler [Edward Hall](/source/Edward_Hall) records that in Parliament Pakington again revealed anti-clerical sentiments, "speaking somewhat against the covetousness and cruelty of the clergy".{{sfn|Miller|1982}} In the final years of his life, Pakington reported to [Thomas Cromwell](/source/Thomas_Cromwell) on matters in [Flanders](/source/Flanders) at the behest of Cromwell's man of business, [Stephen Vaughan](/source/Stephen_Vaughan_(merchant)), who held strongly Protestant sympathies.{{sfn|Marshall|2008}} On the morning of 13 November 1536, while crossing the street from his home in Cheapside to attend Mercers' Chapel located opposite, Pakington was shot with a gun and killed:{{sfn|Miller|1982}}{{sfn|John Foxe|1838}}{{Blockquote|And one morning amongst all other, being a great misty morning such as hath seldom been seen, even as he was crossing the street from his house to the church, he was suddenly murdered with a gun, which of the neighbours was plainly heard and by a great number of labourers there standing at Soper's Lane end...but the deed doer was never espied nor known.}} His murder was likely the first committed with a handgun in London.{{sfn|Sutton|2005|p=387}}{{sfn|Marshall|2008}} His murderer was never found, despite the "gret rewarde" which was offered for information.{{sfn|Marshall|2008}} Pakington's murder was interpreted by Protestant reformers as martyrdom,{{sfn|Marshall|2008}} and became a source of religious controversy. In 1545 the Protestant reformer [John Bale](/source/John_Bale) suggested that "conservative bishops" were behind the murder.{{sfn|Marshall|2008}} A similar suggestion was made in 1548 by [Hall](/source/Edward_Hall), who also attributed Pakington's death to the Catholic clergy.{{sfn|Miller|1982}} [John Foxe](/source/John_Foxe), too, held the clergy responsible, but in the process of doing so proposed contradictory theories of the crime. In 1559 Foxe claimed that [John Stokesley](/source/John_Stokesley), a former [Bishop of London](/source/Bishop_of_London) "had paid a priest sixty gold coins to carry out the murder". However, in the 1563 edition of the ''Actes and Monuments'' Foxe stated that [John Incent](/source/John_Incent), a former [Dean of St Paul's](/source/Dean_of_St_Paul's), had made a deathbed confession in which he admitted arranging for Pakington's murder.{{sfn|Foxe|1570|p=1330}} The Catholic apologist [Nicholas Harpsfield](/source/Nicholas_Harpsfield) accused Foxe of slandering Incent, and in the 1570 edition of the ''Actes and Monuments'' Foxe produced yet another theory, claiming that Pakington's murderer was an Italian.{{sfn|Marshall|2008}} In their accounts of Pakington's death the chroniclers [John Stow](/source/John_Stow), [Richard Grafton](/source/Richard_Grafton) and [Raphael Holinshed](/source/Raphael_Holinshed) did not repeat Foxe's allegations,{{sfn|Marshall|2008}} and Holinshed put forward an entirely different version of events, claiming that a felon hanged at [Banbury](/source/Banbury) had confessed on the gallows to Pakington's murder.{{sfn|Miller|1982}} By the time of his death, Pakington was a "man of substance". He had been assessed at 500 marks in the 1534 subsidy,{{sfn|Marshall|2008}} and in 1535 had exported some 250 cloths to [Antwerp](/source/Antwerp).{{sfn|Miller|1982}} The cash bequests in his will amounted to over £300.{{sfn|Marshall|2008}} According to Marshall, the wording of the will, which Pakington drew up on 23 November 1535,{{sfn|Miller|1982}} provides additional evidence of his sympathy for the Protestant Reformation. Moreover, the sermon at his funeral on 16 November was preached by the "Lutheran activist", [Robert Barnes](/source/Robert_Barnes_(martyr)).{{sfn|Marshall|2008}} Pakington was buried in [St Pancras Church in Soper Lane](/source/St_Pancras%2C_Soper_Lane), which was destroyed in the [Great Fire of London](/source/Great_Fire_of_London) in 1666 and not rebuilt.{{cite web |title=PAKINGTON, Robert (by 1489–1536), of London. |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/pakington-robert-1489-1536#:~:text=While%20on%20his%20way%20to%20mass |website=History of Parliament Online |publisher=History of Parliament Trust |access-date=1 October 2024}} Stow states that a monument was erected there to his memory.{{cite book |last1=John |first1=Stow |title=A Survey of London |date=1908 |publisher=Clarendon |location=London |page=261 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hIFnAAAAMAAJ&q=cheap+warde |access-date=1 October 2024}} According to the custom of the City of London his children became orphans in the care of the city; on 20 November 1537 the court of aldermen entrusted Pakington's son and heir, [Thomas Pakington](/source/Thomas_Pakington), to the custody of his grandfather, Sir [John Baldwin](/source/John_Baldwin_(judge)).{{sfn|Miller|1982}} ==Marriages and issue== Pakington married firstly Agnes Baldwin, the daughter of [Sir John Baldwin](/source/John_Baldwin_(judge)), [Chief Justice of the Common Pleas](/source/Chief_Justice_of_the_Common_Pleas), by whom he had two sons and three daughters:{{sfn|Phillimore|1888|p=103}}{{sfn|Gibbs|1888|p=310}} * Sir Thomas Pakington (d. 2 June 1571), who married [Dorothy](/source/Dorothy_Kitson), the daughter of [Sir Thomas Kitson](/source/Thomas_Kitson) by his second wife, Margaret (d. 12 January 1561), the only child of John Donnington (d.1544) of [Stoke Newington](/source/Stoke_Newington).{{sfn|Rowe|2004}}{{sfn|Baggs|Bolton|Croot|1985|pp=178–184}}{{sfn|Welch|Archer|2008}} Their eldest son, [Sir John Pakington](/source/John_Pakington_(died_1625)), was for a time a favourite of Queen [Elizabeth I](/source/Elizabeth_I), who invited him to court after he had been presented to her during her visit to Worcester in 1572.{{sfn|Wright|2007}} * John Pakington, of whom nothing further is known.{{sfn|Phillimore|1888|p=103}} * Elizabeth Pakington, who married firstly John Lane (died 12 September 1557) of [Walgrave](/source/Walgrave), Northamptonshire, and secondly [Sir Richard Malory](/source/Richard_Malory), Alderman of London and [Lord Mayor](/source/List_of_lord_mayors_of_London) in 1564.{{sfn|Gibbs|1888|p=310}}{{sfn|Phillimore|1888|p=103}}{{sfn|Salzman|1937|pp=217–222}} * Anne Pakington, who married [Richard Cupper](/source/Richard_Cupper), esquire, of [Glympton](/source/Glympton), Oxfordshire.{{sfn|Gibbs|1888|p=310}}{{sfn|Phillimore|1888|p=103}}[http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/cupper-%28couper%29-richard-1519-8384 Cupper (Couper), Richard (by 1519–83/84), of London and Powick, Worcestershire, History of Parliament] Retrieved 11 May 2013. * Margaret Pakington, who married firstly Benedict Lee (d.1559), esquire of [Burston, Buckinghamshire](/source/Burston%2C_Buckinghamshire), half-brother of [Sir Anthony Lee](/source/Anthony_Lee_(politician)), and a [henchman](/source/henchman) to King [Henry VIII](/source/Henry_VIII),{{sfn|Chambers|1936|pp=28, 247}} and secondly Thomas Scott, esquire, of [Yorkshire](/source/Yorkshire).{{sfn|Gibbs|1888|p=310}}{{sfn|Phillimore|1888|p=103}} Between 1533 and November 1535,{{sfn|Marshall|2008}} Pakington married secondly Katherine Dallam (d.1563), the daughter of Thomas Dallam, a member of the [Worshipful Company of Skinners](/source/Worshipful_Company_of_Skinners) and the {{not a typo|Company's}} Warden in 1497. At the time of the marriage, Katherine was the widow of her first husband, Richard Collier (d.1533), by whom she had a son and daughter, George and Dorothy.{{sfn|Whittick|2008}} On 21 August 1539, Katherine Pakington took as her third husband Sir Michael Dormer (d. 20 September 1545),{{sfn|Whittick|2008}} the son of Geoffrey Dormer (d. 9 March 1503) of [West Wycombe](/source/West_Wycombe), Buckinghamshire, by his second wife, Alice Collingridge.{{sfn|Richardson|2011|pp=281–3}} Dormer was a wealthy [Mercer](/source/Worshipful_Company_of_Mercers), and [Lord Mayor of London](/source/List_of_lord_mayors_of_London) in 1541.{{sfn|Whittick|2008}} Katherine's two children by her marriage to Richard Collier died about the time of her marriage to Dormer.{{sfn|Whittick|2008}} ==See also== *[List of unsolved murders (before 1900)](/source/List_of_unsolved_murders_(before_1900)) ==Notes== {{Reflist}} ==References== {{refbegin|35em}} *{{Citation| chapter = Stoke Newington: Other estates | last1 = Baggs | first1 = A. P. | last2 = Bolton | first2 = Diane K. | last3 = Croot | first3 = Patricia E.C. | year = 1985 | title = ''A History of the County of Middlesex'': Volume 8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes | editor1-last = Baker | editor1-first = T.F.T. | editor2-last = Elrington | editor2-first = C. R. | publisher = British History Online | chapter-url = http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=10177 | pages = 178–184 }} *{{Cite book| title = Sir Henry Lee: An Elizabethan Portrait | last = Chambers | first = E.K. | year = 1936 | publisher = Clarendon Press | location = Oxford | url = https://archive.org/details/sirhenryleeeliza00cham | url-access = limited | via = [Internet Archive](/source/Internet_Archive) | pages = [https://archive.org/details/sirhenryleeeliza00cham/page/n35 28], 247 }} *{{cite book| title = The acts and monuments of John Foxe: A New and Complete Edition | year = 1838 | author = John Foxe | publisher = R.B. Seeley and W. Burnside | volume = 5 }} *{{Cite web| title = The Death of Robert Packington | last = Foxe | first = John | year = 1570 | orig-year = First published 1563 | work = John Foxe's The Actes and Monuments Online | page = 1330 | url = http://www.johnfoxe.org/index.php?realm=text&gototype=modern&edition=1570&pageid=1330 | access-date = 29 April 2013 }} *{{Cite book| title = Worthies of Buckinghamshire | last = Gibbs | first = Robert | year = 1888 | publisher = Robert Gibbs | location = Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=3yYsAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA311 | pages = 309–12 }} *{{Cite ODNB| title = Pakington, Robert (b. in or before 1489, d. 1536) | last = Marshall | first = Peter | date = October 2008 | id = 96818 }} *{{Citation| chapter = Pakington, Robert (by 1489–1536), of London | last = Miller | first = Helen | year = 1982 | title = The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558 | editor-last = Bindoff | editor-first = S.T. | publisher = Boydell and Brewer }} *{{Cite book| title = The Visitation of the County of Worcester Made in the Year 1569 | editor-last = Phillimore | editor-first = W.P.W. | year = 1888 | publisher = Harleian Society | location = London | volume = XXVII | pages = 101–3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ECoEAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA103 }} *{{Cite book| title = Plantagenet Ancestry | last = Richardson | first = Douglas | year = 2011 | location = Salt Lake City | volume = II | pages = 281–3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kjme027UeagC&pg=RA1-PA282 | isbn = 978-144996634-8 }} *{{Cite ODNB| title = Kitson family (per. c.1520–c.1660) | last = Rowe | first = Joy | year = 2004 | id = 73910 }} *{{Citation| chapter = Parishes: Walgrave | title = A History of the County of Northampton | editor-last = Salzman | editor-first = L.F. | year = 1937 | publisher = British History Online | volume = 4 | pages = 217–222 | chapter-url = http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66352 }} *{{cite book| title = The mercery of London: trade, goods and people, 1130–1578 | last = Sutton | first = Anne F. | year = 2005 | publisher = Ashgate Publishing | page = 387 | isbn = 978-075465331-8 }} *{{Cite ODNB| title = Kitson, Sir Thomas (1485–1540) | last1 = Welch | first1 = Charles | last2 = Archer | first2 = Ian W. (reviewer) | orig-year = First published 2004 | date = January 2008 | id = 15833 }}{{DNBfirst|wstitle=Kytson, Thomas}} *{{Cite ODNB| title = Collier, Richard (1480x85?–1533) | last = Whittick | first = Christopher | orig-year = First published 2006 | date = October 2008 | id = 95011 }} *{{Cite ODNB| title = Pakington, Sir John (1549–1625) | last = Wright | first = Stephen | orig-year = First published 2004 | date = May 2007 | id = 21145 }} {{refend}} ==Further reading== {{refbegin|35em}} *{{Cite ODNB| title = Pakington, Sir John (b. in or before 1477, d. 1551) | last = Baker | first = J.H. | orig-year = First published 2004 | date = May 2009 | id = 21143 | ref = none }} *{{Cite ODNB| title = Baldwin, Sir John (bap. before 1470, d. 1545) | last = Baker | first = John | orig-year = First published 2004 | date = October 2008 | id = 1166 | ref = none }} *{{Cite ODNB| title = Tasburgh, Dorothy [other married name Dorothy Pakington, Lady Pakington] (1531–1577) | last = Carter | first = P.R.N. | orig-year = First published 2004 | date = January 2008 | id = 68014 | ref = none }} *{{Cite book| title = The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham | last = Lipscomb | first = George | year = 1847 | author-link = George Lipscomb | publisher = J. & W. Robins | location = London | volume = II | pages = 8–9, 14 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zyYgAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA8 | ref = none }} * [http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=D978833 Will of Sir John Baldwin, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, proved 27 October 1545, National Archives] Retrieved 29 April 2013 * [http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=D977686 Will of Robert Pakington, Mercer of London, proved 24 April 1537, National Archives] Retrieved 29 April 2013 * [http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=D978816 Will of Sir Michael Dormer, Alderman and Mercer of London, proved 2 October 1545, National Archives] Retrieved 7 May 2013 * [http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=D955503 Will of Dame Katherine Dormer, widow, of London, proved 26 January 1563, National Archives] Retrieved 7 May 2013 * [http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=D949325 Will of Richard Collier, Mercer, of Saint Pancras, London, proved 12 March 1533, National Archives] Retrieved 7 May 2013 * [http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/cupper-%28couper%29-richard-1519-8384 Cupper (Couper), Richard (by 1519–83/84), of London, Powick and Worcester, History of Parliament] Retrieved 12 May 2013 * [http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=D921192 Will of Richard Cupper of Powick, Worcestershire, proved 15 October 1584, PROB 11/67/341, National Archives] Retrieved 12 May 2013 {{refend}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Pakington, Robert}} Category:1480s births Category:1536 deaths Category:15th-century English businesspeople Category:Deaths by firearm in London Category:English MPs 1529–1536 Category:English MPs 1536 Robert Category:People murdered in London Category:Protestant martyrs of England Category:Unsolved murders in London Category:People murdered in 1536 --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Robert Pakington](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Pakington) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Pakington?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.