Purveyor of Hens to the, [109], [119], [129]. See Hen-taker.
Pury Robert, [122], [287], bis, [291], bis. See Pery.
---- William, [76].
Pykering Sir William, [220].
The entry relating to this individual is not a little amusing, for it seems that he won 2l. 5s. of the King by a bet that he would outrun his own dog. He is thus described by Lloyd. "His extraction was not noble, his estate but mean; yet was his person so comely, his carriage so elegant, his life so gravely reserved and studious, and his embassies in France and Germany so well managed, that in King Edward's days he was by the council pitched upon as the oracle, whereby our agents were to be guided abroad; and in Queen Elizabeth's, designed by common vote for the prince by whom we were to be governed at home. He received extraordinary favours, no doubt, so deserving he was: he wished no more, he was so popular; and when his service was admitted to Her Majesty's bosom, all fancies but his own placed his person in her bed." State Worthies, Ed. 1766, vol. i. p. 415. Sir William died at Pickering House in London in 1574, aged 58, and was buried under a magnificent tomb in the Church of St. Helen the Great and Less. Queen Elizabeth, according to his epitaph, was, "principi ommum illustrassimæ summus officris devotissimus." Pennant's London, p. 416. A copy of Edward the Sixth's "Instructions to Sir William Pickeringe, Knt. one of the Gentlemen of His Highenes Chamber toucheing the revocatione of Sir John Masone and the said Sir William to supplie his rome as residente ambassadore in Fraunce, dated 30th June, 1551," is preserved in the Harleian MS. 353, f. 113.b If, as Pennant states, he was born in 1516, he could only have been sixteen years old when he ran a race with his dog, and thereby won a wager of 45s. from Henry, a time of life suitable to such an action; but it is singular he should have been knighted at so early a period.
Pylleson, Michell, [240].
Pyne, the hosier, [18], [19], bis, [44], [61], [66], [86], [94], [98], [109], [122], [131], [138].
Pynn ——, [85].