Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Sir Gilbert Pickering, 1st Baronet (1611 – October 1668) was a regicide, a member of the English Council of State during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell,[1] and a member of Cromwell's Upper House.
[edit] Biography
In 1625 Pickering graduated with a BA from Emmanuel College, Cambridge and in 1629 entered Gray's Inn.[2]
Gilbert Pickering was an MP representing Northamptonshire and as such served in the Short Parliament of 1640 and in the Long Parliament of 1640 to 1653. He abandoned the royalist cause when Charles raised his standard at Nottingham in 1642.[3]
In 1642 Pickering joined the Northamptonshire committee and was most active as "a sequester and a committee man" although he also raised a regiment for parliament.[2]
As the decade went on he move Presbyterian, by stages until he was an Anabaptist, (later during the Interregnum he voted against the immediate abolition of Church tithes but favoured the banning Christmas).[2]
During the disagreement between Parliament and the New Model Army in 1648 Pickering sided with the Army and kept his seat in the Rump after Pride's purge of the Long Parliament. He was appointed one of the judges at the trial of Charles I in 1648 but only sat in two sessions and did not sign Charles's death warrant.[2][4]
He remained MP for Northamptonshire through the Interregnum 1648-1660 and was appointed Lord Chamberlain to Oliver Cromwell in 1657. His public career ended in 1660. With the help of his brother-in-law Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, Pickering obtained a pardon from King Charles II before his restoration. The original of the pardon delivered by Charles II on vellum in Latin is in the Pitts Theology Library of Emory University, MS no 109.[3]
[edit] Family
Pickering's family came to prominence at the time when Sir Gilbert's great-great-grandfather Gilbert Pickering purchased manors in the village of Titchmarsh, Northamptonshire.
Pickering's father, John Pickering, married Susannah, daughter of Sir Erasmus Dryden. Sir Gilbert married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Sydney Montague (Montagu), master of requests and a prominent Parliamentarian.They had eight sons and four daughters.[2]
Sir Gilbert's baronetcy was created in about 1632, his son John inherited the title, and his son Gilbert inherited it from him, Edward the fourth to hold the title died without issue 3 July 1749, at which time the title became extinct.[5]
Gilbert had a brother called John who also fought for Parliament dying in 1645, which means that there were three generations of John Pickering in the same family related to Gilbert thus: father, brother (a colonel in the New Model Army) and a son who inherited the baronetcy.
Pickering was also the cousin and an early patron of the poet, John Dryden.[1] John Dryden grew up in the village of Titchmarsh. The monuments to the poet Dryden and to his parents Erasmus Dryden and Mary Pickering were erected at Titchmarsh by Elizabeth Creed (daughter of Sir Gilbert Pickering), whose marriage at Titchmarsh in 1668 was attended by Samuel Pepys. Sir Gilbert and his descendants are commemorated by tombs and memorials in Titchmarsh church.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Robert Aris Willmott (1839). Lives of Sacred Poets.
- ^ a b c d e Timothy Venning, ‘Pickering, Sir Gilbert, first baronet, appointed Lord Pickering under the protectorate (1611–1668)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 5 Aug 2009
- ^ a b Information in this paragraph is derived from the Pitts Theology Library online catalogue entry, (see PICKERING, GILBERT, SIR, 1613-1668. Pardon, 1660).
- ^ "House of Lords Record Office The Death Warrant of King Charles I". 2 January 2007. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199899/ldparlac/ldrpt66.htm.
- ^ Life of Sir Gilbert Pickering
- ^ Information in this paragraph is derived from Victoria County History, Northants III (1930), 142-149.
| Baronetage of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| New creation | Baronet (of Titchmarsh)1638–1668 | Succeeded by John Pickering |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Pickering, Gilbert |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 1611 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | 1668 |
| Place of death | |
Annotations
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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.
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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 opinionFrom: 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
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“Sir Gilbert Pickering died on October 21, 1668”
L&M, in a footnote to the Diary entry of October 21, where Pepys records “I hear that Sir Gilbert Pickering is lately dead, about three days since,” say Pickering was buried on October 17. http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1668/10/21/