Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Sir Gilbert Pickering was a member of the English Council of State during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell.[1]
He was one of the commissioners of the High Court of Justice during the trial of King Charles I but did not sign the death warrant.[2]
Pickering was also the cousin and an early patron of the poet, John Dryden.[1]
Gilbert Pickering was born in 1613. The son of Sir John Pickering, of Titchmarsh, Northamptonshire and his wife Susannah, daughter of Sir Erasmus Dryden. He entered Gray’s Inn on November 6, 1629. He was married twice: first to the daughter of Sir Sidney Montagu, Elizabeth; and secondly, to a daughter of John Pepys of Cambridgeshire. He was later created a baronet of Nova Scotia. Pickering became a member of Parliament for the county of Northampton. He represented this county in the Short Parliament (April 13 to May 5, 1640) and the Long Parliament (November 1640 to April 1653). When Charles raised his standard at Nottingham on August 22, 1642, Pickering abandoned the king for the parliamentary cause. He was very active in raising money and recruiting troops and soon was appointed to the parliamentary committee. In 1648, he was appointed one of the judges in the trial of Charles I. He did not sign the king’s death warrant and only attended two sessions of the court. Pickering remained the representative for Northampton throughout the Interregnum (1648-1660). In the parliamentary election of 1655, it was claimed that he used illegal force to obtain his seat. He was appointed lord chamberlain to the Protector in 1657. He signed the proclamation recognizing Richard Cromwell as his father’s heir and served in his government as well. His public career ended with the restoration of the Stuarts in 1660. Through the intercession of his brother-in-law, Edward Montagu, Earl of Sandwich, Pickering was removed from the list of Cromwellian supporters to be punished by the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion (1660), this was act designed to punish the regicides and restore the fortunes of loyal Cavaliers. Sandwich went further and was instrumental in obtaining a pardon from Charles II for Pickering. For his part in the rebellion, Sir Gilbert was barred from holding public office for the remainder of his life. Sir Gilbert Pickering died on October 21, 1668 and was succeeded by his son, John.
here is one of Pickerings oppinion in another diary
Sir Gilbert Pickering. If a man shall renounce the supremacy of the Pope, and haply, in his own private opinion, may hold purgatory or some other thing in the oath, it is hard that for this he should be sequestered. I would have no man suffer for his bare opinion
From: British History Online
Source: The Diary of Thomas Burton: 3 December 1656. Diary of Thomas Burton esq, volume 1, John Towill Rutt (editor) (1828).
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=36738
Date: 09/03/2005