Lynn on 18 Nov 2003  •  Link

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.

vicenzo on 9 Mar 2005  •  Link

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/…
Date: 09/03/2005

Terry Foreman on 22 Oct 2011  •  Link

"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/diary/1…

Bill on 16 May 2013  •  Link

For a family tree of Sir Gilbert Pickering: http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Pers…

Bill on 5 Feb 2014  •  Link

PICKERING, Sir GILBERT, first baronet (1613-1668), parliamentarian; of Gray's Inn, 1629; M.P. Northamptonshire, in the Short and Long Parliaments and in those of the Commonwealth; active at the beginning of the civil war in raising troops and money in his county; sided with the army, 1648, and was appointed one of Charles I's judges, but attended only at first and did not sign the death-warrant; member of council of state under the Commonwealth; escaped punishment after the Restoration, but was declared incapable of holding office; was a baronet of Nova Scotia.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

San Diego Sarah on 23 Jun 2019  •  Link

From THE LIFE OF JOHN DRYDEN by REV. GEORGE GILFILLAN

In 1657, aged about 26, John Dryden moved to London, "clad in homely drugget," and with more projects in his head than money in his pocket.

He employed by his relative, Sir Gilbert Pickering -- called the "Fiery Pickering" from his Roundhead zeal -- as a clerk or secretary. Here he met Oliver Cromwell and saw those great qualities of sagacity, determination, courage, statesmanship, insight and genuine godliness, which made him, next to Alfred the Great, the first English monarch to sit on the English throne.

When Cromwell died, Dryden wrote and published his Heroic Stanzas.

When Richard Cromwell resigned, John Dryden and most of the nation saw the cause was lost, and took his talents to the winning side. But he never retracted the praise he gave to Oliver Cromwell. In "Absalom and Achitophel" he sneers at Richard Cromwell as Ishbosheth, but says nothing against the deceased giant Saul.

Dryden’s desertion was at first his loss: he lost their favor (should a reaction come), and he lost his position and the shelter of Sir Gilbert Pickering's princely mansion.

John Dryden went to live in the obscure house of a Mr. Herringman, a bookseller in the New Exchange, and became a professional author.

Dryden's poem on the “Coronation of Charles” was designed to wipe away the stain of Cromwellism, and to attract the new King's eye, whose glory he sang with more zeal than truth. He was considered consequential enough to be elected a member of the Royal Society in 1662.

Lots more about Dryden but nothing more about Pickering at https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/…

San Diego Sarah on 22 May 2024  •  Link

"Fiery Pickering" evidently did very well financially under Cromwell -- he built a house next door to Wallingford House on Whitehall:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

His reduced circumstances at the start of the Diary, when he was in danger of being hanged, drawn and quartered as a Regicide, must have been terrifying.