John Pakington

Sir John Pakington (c.1477 – 21 August 1551), was Chirographer of the Court of Common Pleas, a Member of Parliament for Gloucester, and Sheriff of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. In 1529 he received an extraordinary grant from Henry VIII permitting him to wear his hat in the King's presence.

Biography Although the Pakington family is of great antiquity, being recorded at the time of the foundation of St Mary's Abbey, Kenilworth, in the reign of Henry I, according to Burke the 'founder of the fortunes of the house of Pakington' was the lawyer Sir John Pakington in the reign of Henry VIII.

Born about 1477, he was the eldest son of John Pakington of Stanford-on-Teme, Worcestershire, and Elizabeth Washbourne, the daughter and heiress of Thomas Washbourne. He had three brothers, Humphrey, Robert and Augustine, and three sisters: Joyce married firstly a husband surnamed Blount, and secondly John Corbet of Leigh, Shropshire; Eleanor married a husband surnamed Gravener, of Shropshire; and Margery married a husband surnamed Neve.

Pakington began his legal career in about 1498 as an attorney in the Court of Common Pleas. He entered the Inner Temple shortly before 1505, and in 1507 was acting as counsel in the Court of Requests. He may have secured patronage at court, which could account for his appointment in 1508 as Chirographer of the Court of Common Pleas, but the account must have been exaggerated. In the subsidy roll, in which the valuations were always unduly low, he was rated at no more than £50 a year.

Pakington made his last will on 16 August 1551, and died five days later. He was buried at Hampton Lovett in the chapel of St Anne in the parish church. As he had no male issue, he was succeeded by Sir Thomas Pakington (died 2 June 1571), the eldest son of his brother, Robert Pakington (died 1536).

Family Pakington married, by 1530, Anne (d. 22 August 1563), the daughter of Henry Dacres of Mayfield, Staffordshire, Alderman of London in 1526 and Sheriff in 1528, a descendant of 'the ancient family of the Dacres in Westmorland', by his first wife, Elizabeth (d. 26 April 1530). She had a brother, Robert Dacres (d. 20 November 1543), Privy Councillor and Master of Requests to Henry VIII, who married Elizabeth Monoux (widow of Sir Thomas Denny (d.1527), elder brother of Sir Anthony Denny, and daughter of Sir George Monoux (died 1544), Lord Mayor of London), and two sisters, Eleanor Dacres, who married George Rolle (died 1552); and Alice Dacres, who married Robert Cheeseman (d. 24 July 1547).

At the time of the marriage, Anne was the widow of Robert Fairthwaite (d.1521), citizen and Merchant Taylor of London, by whom she had a daughter, Elizabeth Fairthwaite, who married Nicholas Tichborne of Roydon, Essex, as well as two sons, Martin Fairthwaite and Geoffrey Fairthwaite, who died without issue.

By his wife Anne, Pakington is said to have had two daughters, Ursula (d.1558), who married William Scudamore (d.1560), by whom she was the mother of Sir John Scudamore (1542–1623), and Bridget, who married Sir John Littleton of Frankley, Worcestershire, and after his death three other husbands.

There is a memorial to Pakington's widow, Anne, in the church of St Botolph, Aldersgate which depicts Anne, a knight in armour, and a daughter. The inscription reads: